LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 

„, "^l , 



UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



RHYMES OF A RADICAL 



J3 



BY 



/ 



W. LINC. DYER 



Ask, what is a poet? 

And thus th' Muses answer: 
Sensation's miracle, 

A weird music master. 



DEC 18IB90/, 



INDIANAPOLIS 

CARLON & HOLLENBECK, PEINTERS AND BINDERS 
1890. 






Copyright, 1890 

BY 

W, LiNC. Dyer. 



DEDICATION 



TO HIS 

NUMEROUS BRETHREN 

THE 

"POOR-DEVILS," 

IN THE 

FEAR OF GOD AND HOPE OF BETTER TIMES, 

THIS 

BOOK OF POEMS 

IS 

FRATERNALLY DEDICATEJD 

By the Author. 



" There is among us a set of critics who seem to hold 
that every possible thought and image if traditional ; 
who have no notion that there are such things as 
fountains in the world, small as well as great ; and who 
would, therefore, charitably derive every rill they be- 
hold flowing for a perforation made in some other 
man's tank." Samuel T. Coleridge. 



INTRODUCTORY NOTE. 



Whatever may be said of other kinds of art, it is 
clear that poetry as a form of literary expression is 
not in process of extinction. Undoubtedly the poetic 
Muse has passed through a serious ordeal in our United 
States. She has been obliged to make the acquaint- 
ance of strangers, to leave her haunts in the wildwood, 
to journey from city to city, to sit on great cubes of 
block-coal in iron mills, and to have her golden hair 
sprinkled with sawdust in a thousand factories. She 
has been compelled to travel on steamboats and in 
crowded railway trains, being elbowed much by the 
rude and profane folk who seek through such thor- 
oughfares to enter Paradise Regained. 

What effect all this has produced upon the temper 
and spirits of the American Muse it were hard to say ; 
but we may still believe in her divinity, accept her 
work as the embroidery of a virgin's hands, and do as 
much as we may to lead her back from the strange 
places where she has been sojourning, into the primi- 
tive thickets of pawpaw and wild grape, into the 
woodland orchards and gardens where the June apples 
still grow and the old-fashioned roses are still a-bloom- 
ing. 

We may well be surprised at the extent and variety 
of the poetical compositions which our time and con- 



VI INTRODUCTORY NOTE. 

(iition are producing. We have all manner of songs. 
Here is our young friend, Mr. Dyer, with his Rhymes 
OF A Radical, telling us of the things which he has 
seen and heard and imagined in a country village of 
Indiana. The book is one of many — the work of a be- 
ginner, whose mind, without the discipline of learning, 
seeks expression for its moods and emotions and hopes 
in the form of verse. It is our privilege to encourage 
the initial flight. The success of the song-writer, as 
the success of all manner of human beings, depends 
for the most part upon himself — upon the breadth of 
his vision and his strength of wing. Meanwhile I take 
pleasure in contributing this Introductory Note to the 
trial effort of Mr. Dyer in the publication of his un- 
tutored songs. John Clark Ridpath. 
Greencastle, Xov. 36, 1890. 



AUTHOR'S NOTE. 



That much may not be expected when but httle has 
been given, the author, with no disposition to beg for 
quarter, takes occasion to say the following trifles are 
not the creation of learned art. They are, for the most 
part, the product of a lad of nineteen summers whose 
" schooling " virtually ended more than six years be- 
fore, and whose subsequent life was one of erratic en- 
deavor. Of the quality of his verse he presumes not 
to speak — is, indeed, in doubt. 

One day he rejoices in the hope of an humble seat 
within the charmed circle of the song makers of his 
native state ; that night the banshee cries, and the day 
following, despairing and disconsolate, he contemplates 
their incineration and a vow of eternal desistance. 
And now, from the biased and antagonistic decisions 
of his own untutored mind, appeals the question to the 
magnanimous head and heart of the people of his natal 
commonwealth. 

Cloverdale, Ind. 



NDEX, 



The Villagers' Sabbath ^ 

The Harp and Harper 1^ 

Four Line Lectures ^' 

The Plowboy's Ureani ^1 

Meum et Tuum ^^ 

An Autumnal AValk 
^istle to Miss D. H. 28 

A Cause for Grief ^^^ 

By the Po ^^ 

John Boyle O'Rielly 36 

AVritten During a Storm ^^7 

The Miller's Daughter 40 

"NeatAsaPin" 43 

Epistle to Two Little Girls 45 

Cupid's Shot 46 

Thou Cruel Old November 54 

Epistle to a Resident Miss 56 

What Greatness Is 61 

The Death of Innocence 62 

Village Aristocracy 65 

Epistle to J. C. McCloskey 103 

Epistle, Fragment of 104 

To My Sister Lenore 105 

Sailor Boy Jack HO 

Hymn of Rejoicing HI 

To " Our Nobility " 112 

Paulus' Vision 113 

To An Early Preceptress 115 



X INDEX. 

My Definition 117 

The Battle of Mobile 118 

Ode to the Dead 121 

Annie Pickens 123 

Ode to Departed Summer 126 

The New Pastor 129 

Young Mother's 8ong ^ 132 

This Age Is Scientific * 133 

Tale of Poor Linkie 136 

Our Ancient Town 139 

Lines on Woman 140 

A Night in June 142 

The Story Sad of Eld 143 

To An Offended School-mate 145 

A Dialogue 146 

Servant of God, All Hail 147 

My Maria 149 

It Buds But Blossoms Never 150 

A Little Boy's Soliloquy 152 

Valediction 153 



RHYMES OF A RADICAL 



[To the American Sabbath Union.] 

THE VILLAGER'S SABBATH. 

" Yes ! let the rich deride, the proud disdain 
The simple pleasures of their lowly train — 
To me more dear, congenial to my heart 
One native charm than all the gloss of art." 

— Goldsmith. 

THE wheel of toil has in its round one gap 
That broken was by the Almighty hand 
To set therein a life-elixired pap 

For ev'ry nation and for ev'ry land. 
It is the Sabbath ; institution blest 

And holier than any day or time, 
A niche provided for the lab'rer's rest 

And soul refreshment with the gospel wine. 

In its short space, from dewy morn till ev'n, 
What vows are spake ! What glowing 
bosoms throb ! . 

What children's hearts, and alien ones forgiv'n. 
Draw near in raptured beat unto their God I 



2 RHYMES OF A RADICAL. 

O, day looked forward to by all mankind 
Who dwell in Christian lands and know the 
Lord, 

Save in th}^ anti-type where can we find 
The unallo3^ed bliss thou dost afford? 

The July sun flings down its burning r^i}-. 

The harness of necessity is off; 
The humble toiler hails this blessed day 

In which a freeman he briefly walk. 
A rev'rent, restful air pervades the land, 

Unbleating flocks, content, stra}^ in the 
woods. 
The kine with pleasant sober faces stand 

In the cool brook and chew their grass}^ 
cuds. 

When first the purpling east proclaims the 
morn 

And day 's half fact and half a prophecy, 
Ere Phoebus floods the fields of waving corn 

Awake the sire and youthful progenj^ 
The lark has dried her bosom in the sun 

Long ere the elder children are awake ; 
The six days toil for self and father 's done ; 

And now, well earned, abundant rest they 
take. 



RHYMES OF A RADICAL. 6 

The Sabbath morn 's the children's and the 
sire's, 

The mother's, too, by the consent of all ; 
And these soon haste away with warm desires 

In answer to the church bell's clanging call. 
If it be abnegation in the child 

That to the parent gives the morn away, 
Or whether night 's the time for lovers' wile, 

Or whether both, it is not mine to say. 

The sermon done, the benediction said, 
Around in chatting groups the good folks 
stand 
To talk with unfeigned love of Christ who 
bled, 
And shake each other's and the preacher's 
hand. .^ 

To this blest scene of high fraternal love 

The children lend an animated glow. 
As 'mong the pews and friendly groups they 
move 
With agile steps, like young fawns, to and 
fro. 

And through this scene more God-like than 
of earth 

With simple grace the humble pastor moves ; 
All recognize his unpretending worth 

And crown him servant of the King of love. 



4 RHYMES OF A RADICAL. 

With strength writ on his brow and mien 
sincere 

He publicly and private preaches Christ, 
The youth, the ag'd, the childre-n all revere 

And bless his kindly talk and sage advice. 

To have the preacher grace the family board 

The good dames seek with pious art naive, 
And load it down with things they ill afford. 

But think themselves well paid his talk to 
have. 
The salutations done, dispersed the flock. 

The merchant and the farmer side by side. 
Who crack of weather, '' prospects " and of 
stock. 

With half an eye to friendship, half to trade. 

From kindly strictures on the sermon 
preached, 

Or simple eulogy in phrase uncouth. 
The honest folk until the home is reached 

Drift to discussions of less vital truth. 
Lo, in the ancient cot, ancestral home. 

That half in vines so modestly is hid. 
For parents dear when they from worship 
come 

Another feast almost as rich is spread. 



RHYMES OF A RADICAL. O 

The children who have fam'lies of their own 
And Hve some distance from the neigh- 
borhood, 
Unthought by them, and unannounced, have 
come 
And wait in ambush with a hkely brood. 
The time is spent as well becomes the day — 

The father gives sage counsel to his son, 
A mother's love directs a daughter's way. 
And through the house the happy children 
run. 

There is a time for all things truth declares, 

A time to part as well as time to meet, 
Hence, now the old farm wagron filled with 
chairs. 
Half full or more, stands waiting in the 
street. 
A pleasant bustle 'round the cottage is. 
The youngsters clamber in full tired with 
play. 
And then with parting counsel and with kiss 
The cumbrous load rolls down the village 
way. 

The wee bit bairnies of the ingle-side 

With sun-tanned cheeks, and bare, brown , 
dirty feet. 



6 RHYMES OF A RADICAL. 

Are loth to leave their kin and with them ride 
To be unwilling dropped where ends the 
street. 

" Let not ambition mock their useful toil, 
Their homel}" jo}'^ and destin}^ obscure ; 

Nor grandeur hear with a disdainful smile 
The short but simple annals of the poor."' 

Part II. 

The preacher dines with brother A or B, 

A godly man, and one who loves the Lord, 
Whose hand 's for the oppressed, to set them 
free. 
Whose heart with gospel love is roundly 
stored. 
His spouse brings forth the treasures of the 
year 
Of meats and jams to grace their board 
this day, 
Determined that her wifely skill appear 

And all the costs the preacher's talk shall 
pay. 

When grace is asked and said the meal pro- 
ceeds. 

The patriarchal sire presiding o'er ; 
On wholesome food the party lib'ral feeds. 

Oft pressed by host and hostess to eat more. 

1 Gray. 



RHYMES OF A RADICAL. i 

The good dame's eyes as 'round she starts the 
trays 
With a subdued but pleased glow uplights 
When one commends in plain unvarnished- 
phrase 
Some petted dish, or eateth of it twice. 

The dinner done the dads go stalking out, 

The parson taking in the midst of them, 
The " aspect of affairs " to talk about. 

And then the waiting children are brought in. 
The dames remain behind to mince and chat 

And help the house-wife clear the things 
away, 
To hand the clam'ring younkers this or that 

And open up the budget of the day. 

The fiithers laugh and anecdotes relate 

Of preachers in the early settler days ; 
How Cartwright taught we'd never fall from 
grace, ^ 
Of Raccoon John's- and Dow's^' eccentric 
ways. 

1 Peter Cartwright once announced he would preach on " Never 
falling from grace." A large crowd assembled in a grove to hear 
the vexed subject discussed by this great man. The stana was be- 
neath a tree, and C, after proper introductories, sprang up and 
caught a strong limb above his head, exclaiming as he swung free 
of the ground, "As long as I hold to this limb I 11 never fall. 
This being tacitly admitted he continued, "Christ is the strong 
limb and as long as you hold on to Him you'll never fall from 
grace," and so closed the sermon. 

2 John T. Smith, the distinguished pioneer " Campbellite " 
preacher of Kentucky. 

3 Lorenzo Dow, "the crazy preacher." 



8 RHYMES OF A RADICAL. 

But by and by the women folks appear, 
A clean washed, healthful brood their steps 
atten' ; 

They come to make and taste of social cheer 
And have their bairnies noticed by the men. 

A diff 'rent turn the even's talk now takes, 

The doing round, crops and such like all go, 
A deeper strain the female heart awakes 

And sets the subtler energies aflow. 
Wives who have read their Bibles long I wis 

And b}^ its m3'steries been much perplexed. 
Who laid them by for such a time as this, 

Upon the preacher now their lire direct. 

Perhaps an anxious soul desires to know 

Whence came Cain's wife? and where the 
land of Nod, 
To which the wretch six thousand years ago 

Fled from the wrathful presence of his God ? 
Perhaps one asks, who was Melchizedec, 

The unbegat and unborn king of Peace, ^ 
Who did the faithful Abram's tithes respect 

When he had spoiled the kings for Lot's 
release? 

What is the sin against the Holy Ghost 
That is and ever must be unforgiv'n, 

1 Jerusalem. 



RHYMES OF A RADICAL. 9 

Which sinks the soul to regions of the lost 
From God and Christ and life and hope and 
heav'n? 

Perhaps the query is the charge of Paul 
To have the women silence keep in church — 

If this applies to Christian sisters all 

In ev'ry age who for their Master work? 

These and a dozen other themes are sprung 

And well discussed with reverential air, 
Until low in the west declines the sun 

And night's approach bids all for it prepare. 
The mooing kine now at the pasture bars 

The milkmaid and her shining pails invite, 
A wakened owl hoots at the wan-faced stars 

That dimly twinkle through the web of 
night. 

The company dispersed the preacher seeks 

In contemplative mood a quite nook, 
And to his heart the Lord of heaven speaks 

From the bright pages of his holy book. 
He seeks by meditating on God's love, 

The voiceless hymn, the fervent, heart-felt 
prayer. 
To bring his soul in touch with the above 

x\nd thus for preaching Christ himself pre- 
pare. 



10 RHYMES OF A RADICAL. 

Part III. 

The day's white heat is past ; its course is run ; 

And gracefully the flaming sun retires 
Adown the western lists, the jousting done, 

His victory proclaimed by moon and stars. 
The countr}^ lads who have no girls come in 

To chat the village yOuth in the same fix, 
Who inly groan and sa}^ " It might have 
been," 

And sympathetic tale together mix. 

When Sunda3-school is done there moves a 
train 
Of buxom maidens, bright-eyed, modest 
dressed, 
Whose glances shiv'ring through the manl}^ 
swain 
Would light the love fires in a deacon's 
breast. 
The bach'lor billies^ roundly eye them by 

In cool, crisp lawn, and flaunting summer 
plaid, 
Love leaps " a conscious flame " to ev'ry eye. 
And lo, they jo}^ in seeing others glad. 

1 Billies— borrowed from Burns, and signifies young felloAvs. 



RHYMES OF A RADICAL. 



11 



A splendid pageant doth it all present 

Unto the mind as well as to the e'e — 
A pageantry of health and high content, 

Of beauty, cheerfulness and piety. 
Each native Hoosier maid 's a living gem 

That sparkles in the social ray serene ; 
Their brothers big of heart and brawn are men 

And princely couples do they make, I ween. 

Though fortune's weaklings and the high 
born all, 

The geniuses, and earth's proud scions claim 
Elijah's mantle doth upon them fall. 

And they our dignity and strength maintain ; 
These are the might}^ Atlases that bear 

The civic structure on their shoulders 
strong, 
These are the ones religion doth uprear 

And drive the car of true advance along. 



The coming dark its pleasant shade forecasts 

Along the orient's withered rim and gray ; 
Night breathes upon the earth its pygmy blasts 

And lays its moist hand on the brow of day. 
So sweetly, calmly, doth the ev'ning fall. 

The fields so quiet and the sky serene. 
The watcher's half perplexed if one should call 

The village heaven or the whole a dream. 



12 RHYMES OF A RADICAL. 

The young man and his wife, who yet are in 

The darling glamor of their first love sweet, 
Together walk as da}^ is growing dim 

And wheel a lace-lined cab along the street. 
Perhaps beside them runs a toddling boy 

A mother's love and father's precious pride ; 
Or, reaching up two chubby hands employ 

His little sister's carriage to help drive. 

The C3^press shaded church-yard on the hill 
With marble slabs moss robed, and weird, 
and tall. 
Whose shadows and whose grassy walks are 
still 
Save when the crickets and the wild birds 
call, 
Affords a place for those who meditate 

Unostentatious on a troubled flow ; 
For those who in their bosom wear the crape 
That God alone and Christ can see and know. 

For even service sounds the kirk's clear bell 

Upon the quiet air in son'rous peal, 
Up hill and down, o'er dale its echoes swell. 

And in each heart wakes int'rest for its weal. 
The mourner from the church -yard hies away 

By paths unfrequent, half ashamed of tears. 
The dames sedately grave and daughters gay 

Haste to devotion's place and public pray'rs. 



RHYMES OF A RADICAL. 13 

A time and tuneless melody ascends 

That moves all heaven with its splendid roll, 
No graceful fluctuations it pretends, 

But speaks the rugged language of the soul . 
The lads respectful sit and listen well 

To what the parson says of life to come ; 
But mixing with their thoughts of heav'n and 
hell 

A face, a girlish face, heart's-ease and home. 

Soon, too soon indeed, except for lovers, 
The sermon 's done and all return 
dismissed ; 
What happy scenes the friendly darkness 

covers ! 
■ What strangel}^ twining arms and raptured 

kiss ! 
Beneath the constant stars this hallowed night 
While blows the rose and hawthorn-scented 
gale, 
Is born to bosoms young a new delight, 

Is softly breathed the bosom's burning tale. 

When the good book is read in pious homes 
And prayer is made, in sleep still grows 
each room ; 
The souls refreshed will, when the morning 
comes, 
Their toil unhonored cheerfully resume. 



14 RHYMES OF A RADICAL. 

The twinkling lights above and God keep 
watch, 
A shadow flits across the meadow stile, 
With sprightly step swings down the woody 
thatch 
Some lad belated by his sweet-heart's smile. 

Agnostic vandal who doth seek to rob 

The humble toiler of this blessed day 
By striking at the Christian's hope and God 

With the envenomed fang, I pray delay. 
If heart ye have and if that heart be man's 

Draw near and stud}^ v^ell our Sabbath life, 
Then^in polemic fields impious, hands 

I know ye dare not raise, ye dare not strike. 




RHYMES OF A RADICAL. 15 



THE HARP AND HARPER. 

ON a night that all remember 
In the barren, bleak December, 
Came a man of mighty stature 
To a mansion old and gray. 
Through the rooms he wandered searching, 
Never from his task diverting, 
For a harp on which to play. 

And he found one strangely fashioned, 
With a nightingale impassioned, 
Soulful warbler of the night-time. 
Prisoned in its living strings. 
And he swept them as a master, 
Soft and slow, the loud and faster ; 
As a master swept the strings. 

But one day in early spring-time 
Sudden ceased the pearly song chime. 
Ceased it with a wail of anguish, 
In the mansion old and gray. 
And the man of mighty stature, 
Mighty in his inner nature, 
Found they dead at close of day. 



16 RHYMES OF A RADICAL. 

Silence reigned a' through the mansion, 
Shriveled was all soul expansion, 
Throned was the King of Terrors, 
For three days or so the}^ say. 
But upon an early morning 
Spirits touched its silver cording, 
And the harp began to play. 

Touched the strings with holy rapture. 
Throbbed they on forever after. 
Throbbed they with a seraph's laughter, 
In the mansion old and gray. 
Millions heard the silver chiming 
Of the harp strings strangely rhyming ; 
Rapt they listened on alway. 

And the song that to them given. 
Borrowed from the highest heaven. 
Sweeter than a gale at even 
Ladened with a fragrance rare. 

* * 5K * 

Louder, fuller, twangs the stringing. 
Blessed symphonies out-ringing ; 
Buds and blossoms all the air. 



RHYMES OF A RADICAL. 17 

FOUR LINE LECTURES. 
I. 

IF one can steal a thousand pounds, 
Of course he is a gent, 
But, sir, if he can steal but ten 
To jail he should be sent 

(And so he will). 

II. 
To get a " pile," no matter how, 

Means prestige and position, 
But honest be and poor remain 
Means burdens and submission 

(And so it should). 

III. 
Just bend your backs my fellow-men 

And docile take the burden, 
Or they will send 3^ou to the " pen " 
With letters to the warden 

(To keep you there). 

IV. 

The Pinkertons and other thugs 
Equipped with Springfield rifle, 

Will justice do and bore you through 
If with the peace you trifle 

(With aim correct). 



18 RHYMES OF A RADICAL. 



Stir up no fuss, make no appeal,, 
Not even to the min'sters ; 

For they are busy — with their pay — - 
And calHn' on the sisters 

(A pleasant job). 

VI. 

They build a church most ev'ry day,. 
That is they build the buildin', 

And take into their folds — for pay — 
The good and only midlin' 

(As we all know). 

VII. 

I 've got no grudge agin the Church,. 

Indeed I 'm for religion. 
But tarnal sick of preachers that 

Are seekin^ of position 

(And starrin' it). 

VIII. 

I b'lieve in guidin' Providence 
As well as gospel preachin' ; 

And most our parsons b'lieve it, too,. 
And meek-like take His leadin' 
(To bigger pay). 



RHYMES OF A RADICAL. 19 

IX. 

Our congressmen and senators 

Hate sinners like a pizen, 
And kick the tiresome fool into , 

Who 's bent on moralizin' 

(And so they should). 

X. 

They have no time to waste away 

Discussin' moral matters, 
For they 're a-talkin higher pay 

And 'pintin' of postmasters 

(For service done). 

XI. 

I wonder that their heads don't bu'st 

From all their mighty thinkin' 
On how to stay and increase pay, 

And from the stuff they 're drinkin' 
(In quantities). 

XII. 

No nation but the big U. S. 

Can grow such pow'ful critters 
For makin' promises — to break — 

And suckin' in the bitters 

(For stomach's sake). 



20 



RHYMES OF A RADICAL. 



XIII. 



With men like these to steer the ship 

I fear no Enghsh talkin', 
No Brit can sah our eagle's tail 

Or make him stop his squawkin' 

(And floppin' 'round), 




RHYMES OF A RADICAL. 21 



THE PLOWBOY'S DREAM. 

AYE, 't is all a rural scene hereabout — 
Primeval quiet and peace undisturbed 
Do spread their wings these lowl}^ dells among, 
And droning sounds of Nature, half unheard, 
Come tinkling in mine ears, and seal in sleep. 
Too sweet for numbered words, my willing 
eyes. 



The mazy wood by various Iris kissed, 
Set like a dream in Indian Summer sky, 
Sheds a religious light and shade around. 
Beneath a tree that throws umbrageous arms 
Far out, and aromatic umbels bare, 
Reclines a youth in grace and gravity. 

His straw hat lies neglected at his feet, 
His hair, like Absalom's, unpolled, falls down 
And hides the callous hand his head supports. 
His bosom, in the hay and corn field browned. 
Is part exposed and woo's each passing gale. 
The birds and sprites mischevious from above 
The lad, day-dreaming where the man begins. 
With leaves of various hue do speckle o'er. 



22 RHYMES OF A RADICAL. 

His couch a tessellated spot of green 
Where nature's arabesques and marquetry 
Of leaves autumnal, amber nut and vine, 
In wide promiscuous precision are. 

Above environed 'round with branches knit 

Biped musicians, the sjdviadae. 

In feathered chairs pour forth divinest song, 

And anthems raise of slender volume sweet. 

The sun, refulgent orb and king of da}^ 

Hath from the orient crossed to Occident ; 

And on the tenuous copper of the west 

As if his fading splendors to retrieve 

The great invisible material, 

The unseen world in minature doth etch. 

But lo, our dreamer heeds not the display 
Of matchless blending and of colors new, 
Of airy forms and shapes unknown to earth. 
His open e3^es, straight staring in the sun 
That through an erubescent rainbow shines. 
Behold and yet expressionless remain. 
They see but comprehend not that they see ; 
For fancy tripple plates the brain in steel. 

He paints a mental picture unsurpassed 
That based on hope's uncertain easel is ; 
The pigments, expectation and desire ; 
The canvas, mind ; the brush by fancy plied ; 



RHYMES OF A RADICAL. 23 

And to his flattered heart, hoodooed, 

bewitched, 
The unborn future doth her pack wide ope. 
In rapture visionous he stares into 
The cup enchanted and his fate discerns. 

A cot substantial on a hill-side built 

He sees, and beds of tall angelica. 

Catnip and rhubarb, sage, asparagus. 

And dog-rose pale and vine, embosomed in. 

Upon the tufted lawn and orchard sward, 

The frisky calf now chasing with shrill shout, 

Or romping with the red-mouthed watch-dog 

kind, 
A youthful progeny and boisterous 
Sport unrestrained in freedom, health and — 

dirt. 

The yellow stubble, blocked with domes of 

gold 
Where plump grains hide, scout every hint of 

want ; 
And tedded meads that in the distance lie 
Ambrosial odors lend the languished air. 
The surfeit kine and equine youngsters stand 
Among the aneurisms of the brook, 
Where tall trees spread their grateful shade 

around 
And solitary fishers troll their lines. 



24 RHYMES OF A RADICAL. 

Inside the cot where love its pinions spread 
The kindly matron, mother, wife, and all 
That dignifies the sex and makes it great. 
Doth diligent her household duties ply. 
The shining pots and pans in order ranged. 
And stored fruits, her industry attest ; 
While the lax neatness of the whole within 
Refreshes and invites the lab'ring swain. 

The spinning wheel with pleasant whir and 

hum. 
Turned by a hand that was from girlhood deft, 
A subtile under-bass concomitant 
Doth make unto her simple, untaught song. 
As free she sings the rustic roundelay, 
A monody she sung ere she was wed, 
The carded fleece in threads for winter wear, 
Like textile pearls, from thumb and finger 

twist. 

All this is his — the fields, the stock, the cot, 
The progeny and the home-making wife. 
Felicity and modest comfort here 
Together dwell as twins the Siamese. 
The sun sinks low and lower in the west, 
The twilight dawns and twilight's even falls, 
And still the youth enamoured feeds on 

dreams. 
O, hour illusive ! thine 's the happy space ! 



RHYMES OF A RADICAL. 25 

The vacant stare that 's seen when Fancy 

sways 
His wide orbs deepen till their blue seems 

black, 
And smiles that none save he interpret can 
His lips, slight parted, slowly wreathe along. 
And o'er his honest face a nimbus spread. 
But dream, fair youth ! prospective taste your 

joy I 
For lo, the morrow will thy nuptials greet. 



MEUM ET TUUM. 

IN a vision at the dead of night 
An angel came to me bringing 
A strange-wrought vase of a cubit's height^ 

And the while a sweet song singing. 
I oped the vase and looked within. 
Heavens ! 
I saw 
The happiness of other men. 



26 RHYMES OF A RADICAL. 



AN AUTUMNAL WALK. 

WITH pensive step I walk along 
The diy and sun-burnt pasture 
To where the brooklet tears flow down 
The nut-brown face of Nature. 

Upon its flow the bushes cast, 

With touches soft and tender, 
Their kissing leaves, and whisper: " Dear 

We part, but O ! remember." 

Such trees as have not shed their leaves, 
The ground beneath them strewing, 

Lay their soft cheeks upon the wind 
Responsive to its wooing. 

The sumach dips its berries by 

The wood bird's nest, now empty, 

As if to say, sweet bird come sing 
And food you'll find a-plenty. 

In 3^©nder glen the pawpaw leaves 

Lie heaped in hillocks yellow. 
The bare bush swings upon the breeze 

Its rich fruit ripe and mellow. 



RHYMES OF A RADICAL. 27 

Among the weed, o'er log and rock, 
The lithe-limbed hare is springing ; 

For long, hard runs when winter comes 
Before the hounds preparing. 

The partridges and plovers pipe 
Their love notes half in sadness. 

While strangely on my soul there steals 
A melancholy gladness. 

With pensive step I walk along 
The dr}^ and sunburnt pasture. 

And with the brook my tears flow down 
The nut-brown face of Nature. 




28 RHYMES OF A RADICAL. 



EPISTLE TO MISS D. H. 

WHAT fools are men to race for treasure, 
Skimp and starve, forego all pleasure, 
Just to have in endless measure 

The yellow stuft\ 
We call 'em " close" when talk's of them, 
And say when gone old Nick will get 'em, 
And sure enough. 

Are such men fools more so than him 
Who that distinction he may win 
Doth study till the lamp burns dim 

And cocks crow morn ; 
And with the daylight's breaking in 
Anew his labors doth begin. 

Mind to adorn? 

Who in the verdant da3^s of spring 
When birds and poets wake and sing. 
And trees and plants their ban'rets fling 

Green to the sun. 
Doth ever think of just one thing. 
The what to which he is aspiring. 

And labors on. 



RHYMES OF A RADICAL. 29 

Who spurns the wild wood's pleasant hum, 
The meadows where the brooklets run, 
The mornings bright and evens dun 

His prize to win. 
Who, when the summer days are done, 
And painted skies and woods are come, 

Renewed begins. 

Who turns from winter's gleeful time 

Of song and shout and Christmas chime 

To books that have on them the rime 

Of ages past, 
That he to wisdom's heights may climb 
And truthful cry I shine, I shine, 

O soul at last ! 

Who 's more the fool who digs for store 

Of golden stuff or learned love? 

And pants and asks for more and more 

With soulful cry ; 
In after years to croon it o'er, 
With drear rejoicings o'er it pore. 

And grasp and die. 

Let wise men with the beetle brow, 
And bald head sages past and now, 
In solemn conference avow 

'T is best for youth 



30 RHYMES OF A RADICAL. 

To toil for self; no matter how 
Self is denied ; just ever plow ; 
'T is far from truth. 

Let wisdom in spectacles sit 

With hairless skull and withered wit 

The youth advise, condemning it 

As folly's fool ; 
Still youth in higher wisdom lit 
This learned body knows ; to-wit : 

The devil's school. 

That lad 's a fool who withers up 

To be w^ith books forever shut, 

And hangs around his brain like dust 

The much he knows ; 
A film that hides all common men, 
That likewise hides himself from them ; 

And so it goes. 

'Tis not development of head 

That should be first as most 'tis said. 

There is development instead 

Of higher art ; 
It never made a fool, nor can. 
But binds one to one's fellowman, 

And 'tis of heart. 



RHYMES OF A RADICAL. 31 

And who for lucre or for books 

EscheVvs the lore of woman's looks 

And pleasant words whose music brooks 

No thought of self, 
Is lost to wisdom's highest prize, 
And from his soul the source denies 

Of greatest wealth. 



A CAUSE FOR GRIEF. 

YE gods ! what grief we've fallen in ! 
What length of foolish notion ! 
When width of trousers' leg and cloth 
Determine one's promotion. 

When shape of boot, the depth of sole. 

And the color of cravat 
Determine who 's a gentleman, 

In connection with the hat. 

If angels unto church should g;o 

In clothing antiquated, 
The usher sure, near by the door. 

Would, smiling, say: " Be seated." 



32 RHYMES OF A RADICAL. 

The cut of clothes, the st3'le of hat 
Is more concern in marriage 

To most of maids, I grieve to sa}^ 
Than moral cut and carriage. 

I ween one-half the marriages 

We deem so well attested, 
Are only petticoats tied close 

To frock coats double-breasted. 

And could we see what married is 
Stalk out of our tall churches, 

We 'd see a gown escorted by 
A hat and coat and breeches. 

Ye gods ! alas ! what grief we 're in ! 

What length of foolish notion ! 
To fashion's wiles and fashion's smiles, 

O, what extreme devotion ! 




RHYMES OF A RADICAL. 33 



BY THE PO. 

WHERE swiftly glides the river Po 
And dreamy lights flit to and fro, 
Where mystic sounds both come and go, 

I wander 
'Neath stars that burn so soft at night 
That shed on earth their dewy bright. 
And gazing on them with delight 
I ponder. 

I loved a maiden long ago, 

We met beside the murm'ring Po, 

And there where shadows come and go 

We plighted 
Our love to hold in lasting bands, 
Firm welded by divinest hands. 
And mine intact uprightly stands 

Though bhghted. 

For I 've waited, waited, waited, 

As a bird that is belated. 

For the hour we should be mated 

By the Po. 
And I cry in all my sorrow, 
" Will she come upon the morrow? 
Can 't I consolation borrow? " 
But the night winds full of sorrow 

Answer '*no." 
3 



34 RHYMES OF A RADICAT.. 

Then I raise my hands to heaven, 
Heart and hands at shady seven. 
There I am at weird eleven 
God above wild beseeching. 
There I am at daylight breaking. 
And my very soul is aching 
From the lessons I am taking, 
Lessons of deep sorrow's teaching. 

Five long years I 've wandered here, 
At ev'ry step I 've shed a tear, 
And now a crystal lake is near 

By the Po. 
O ! bitter weep my tearful eyes. 
Tears that sunshine never dries, 
And this crystal lake doth rise 

From their flow. 

Deep in my mind the happy past 
Like some fond dream will ever last, 
But that one joy I can not grasp — 

Her I love. 
She is not of this weary earth, 
Was scarce a tenant here by birth 
Among these scenes of darkness, dearth, 

But above. 

Here I will wander till I 'm dead 
And aye at rest is laid my head. 



RHYMES OF A RADICAL. 



35 



With the green mosses for a bed 

By the Po. 
Ah ! then my heart will ease from pain 
And her sweet love I will regain, 
As my own queen she '11 ever reign 

True I know. 




36 RHYMES OF A RADICAL. 

JOHN BOYLE O'REILLY. 

(In Memoriam.) 

CHILD of a people long in oppression, 
Whose burdens and griefs from youth 
were thine own, 
Well may the land of Brian and Emmet 
Own thee, O'Reilly, her patriot son. 

Mellowed by love as broad as her sorrows. 
Strung with convictions sincere as her moan, 

And courage to act — Erin, thy birth-land. 
Owns thee, O'Reilly, and crowns thee her 
own. 

Province of Meath, no more wilt thou know 
him. 

Lost to thee, Tara, forever the youth. 
Exiled O'Reilly, patriot, poet. 

Martyr puissant, sacristan of truth. 

High, in the spheres at home and eternal 
Emparidised bard, thou lifteth thy song 

For Erin oppressed, her glory restored, 

Freedom from shackles and opulent wrong. 

Land of the dark and extended shadow, 
Lo, when thy holocaust anguish is done. 

Carve on thine arches triumphant, eternal, 
John Boyle O'Reilly, my patriot son. 



RHYMES OF A RADICAL. 37 

WRITTEN DURING A STORM. 

(July, 1890.) 

'\\TRAT awful thoughts slide in upon my 

When lightnings fiercel}^ flash and thunders 

roll, 
When the electric flame burns in the sky 
And smites the temple as it passes by, 
Or splits in twain the haughty granite rock 
And on the earth beneath expends its shock. 

When short before the blast the yieldless oak 
Is snapped, or from its earthy mooring broke. 
To topple for a moment, then to fall. 
It's hoarse crash sounding o'er the storm-god's 

call, 
M}^ heart is filled with awe ; and fears devour 
To see this evidence of matchless pow'r. 

With windy yell and roar resounds the sky, 
Antiphonous the sounding hills reply. 
The elements in battle fierce engage 
And the meek earth 's the gainer in the rage ; 
For smitten, bleeding, lo, their wounds drop 

down 
A salutary ichor* on the ground. 

*The blood of gods— here used for raiu. 



38 RHYMES OF A RADICAL. 

'Tis fear that turns each wheel by commerce 

plied, 
That floats the argosies upon the tide. 
That nerves the weaver's and mechanic's arm, 
That clears the field and cultivates the farm. 
That to the cross the haught}^ alien brings — 
Fears first address and love tVom service 

springs. 

What is there in the vaulted sky serene, 
The maz}^ wood and fields of changeful green. 
The gentle hill, the unimpassioned strain, 
The lapping river and the tiresome plain. 
The zephyr wind, or slow descending show'r 
To wake in us the idea of pow'r ! 

It is the thunder's hoarse resounding roar, 
The startled peal that wakes the echoes o'er. 
The wild careering cloud with aspect stern. 
The zig-zag lightnings that destructive burn, 
And the high rolling flood, that teach us can 
The might of God and feebleness of man. 

It is the mountain's bare and dizzy peak. 
The vawning canvon and the panther's shriek, 
The fretted sea that gnaws its rocky shore. 
The primal forest and the lion's roar. 
That on the bold, presumptions mind of man 
Can lay the awing and restraining hand. 



RHYMES OF A RADICAL. 39 

It is the terrible that is sublime, 
That shrivels back the spirit that would climb 
Above the stars and Jove's eternal throne, 
To just conceptions and a grasp its own, 
'Tis danger swift approaching teaches us 
That God is Pow'r and pygm}^ men are dust. 

While loud the storm in angry accent speaks, 
And an awed terror awful on me creeps, 
I turn my ej^es where erst I could not see 
A line nor shadow of the Deity, 
And lo, upon my sight aroused there springs 
The one eternal Author of all things. , 




40 RHYMES OF A RADICAL. 



THE MILLER'S DAUGHTER. 

HAVE N'T you heard it? O God ! 
Katie is dead — 
Katie, the miller's daughter — 

On the day she was to wed 
She walked beside the water 

Where it races to the wheel, 
The creaking mill above her 

And her lover grinding meal. 
She walked beside the water, 

They heard her silver laughter — 
Katie, the miller's daughter — 

On the day she was to wed. 

And you haven't heard that — that — 

Katie is dead? — 
Katie, the miller's daughter — 

On the day she was to wed 
Gowned for the marriage service 

She came to sit on the sill 
And wait, and watch her lover 

Grinding the grists of the mill. 
A sprite did beckon to her. 

He bade her go with laughter, 
She went to kiss the water 

On the day she was to wed. 



RHYMES OF A RADICAL. 41 

How did 't happen? O, sir, 

We '11 never know 
While the stern cliffs are silent, 

Nor " waters speak as they flow." 
They found her bruised and broken 

Caught fast in the water wheel. 
The creaking mill above her 

And her lover grinding meal. 
Poor, dripping thing ! they took her 

From the relentless water, 
And heavy-hearted brought her 

From the river's sullen flow. 

O, sir! you should 'ave seen her — 

Poor Katie Brown — 
So snow-white in her coflin 

And clothed in her wedding gown. 
She seemed to me just resting. 

I half expected to see — 
To see her open her eyes 

Aud speak again unto me. 
We buried her out yonder 

Where oft she used to wander ; 
A white cloud came to ponder 

O'er her grave ; and still looks down. 



42 RHYMES OF A RADICAL. 

Kind sir, my story 's end'd — 

Poor Katie 's dead. 
Her life-boat slipped its cable 

The day she was to wed. 
The village people mourned her, 

And the country people round. 
Farmers missed her from the mill, 

And the good folks from the town. 
Her Rupert, mad with sorrow. 

Sits by the voiceless water 
Where walked the miller's daughter 

On the day she w^as to wed. 

And on each June return'ng 

Poor Katie Brown, 

The pride of all the countr}^ 

And the idol of the town. 
From her grave among the heather, 

To her lover mourning ever. 
To her Rupert, mad with sorrow. 

As a water-wraith comes down. 
And at the twilight water 

Is heard the silver laughter 
Of Kate, the miller's daughter 

On the day she was to wed. 



RHYMES OF A RADICAL. 43 

''NEAT AS A PIN." 

(Air— Origiual.) 

NOW women are not all alike, 
This fact the boys all know, 
They " size " them like a connoisseur 

As down the street they go. 
But all agree of all the things 

That grace fair woman-kind, 
The charm of neatness doth stand next 
To a warm heart and kind. 

RECITATION. 

I 've the neatest little wife on this big ball 
of piud. Half the men of our set are in love 
with her ; and as she passes along the street 
the general remark is, "What a neat little 
woman !" 

CHORUS. 

People all say " Nora McGwinn 's " — 
Dear little woman — "as neat as a pin." 

Take my advice, boys, and begin 
T3ang to women as " neat as a pin." 

Long years I was a bachelor, 

I said I 'd never wed. 
And when the boys heard that I had 

They said, " He 's lost his head." 



44 RHYMES OF A RADICAL. 

But when the}" saw my shamrock wife 
They straight wa}^ did " cave in," 

And said, "Ah, no ; a prize he 's won ; 
She 's neat as an}" pin." 

RECITATION. 

That 's the universal verdict. She 's some- 
how infused herself into our home, and it 's 
"neat as a pin," too. The boys may well 
say I won a prize ; only I knew it before I 
bought my ticket. 

CHORUS. 

She helps me spend my w^ages, O, 

But that is her just due, 
The strapping of her dear lord's purse 's 

A thing not hard to do. 
I 'm happy as ten angels, bright, 

And bach'lor friends advise. 
From the depth of my completeness. 

Go thou and do likewise. 

RECITATION. 

For besides a loving little bundle of living 
excellence and neatness, -per se^ you will have 
edible and digestible dinners, pockets in your 
trousers, buttons on your shirts and heels on 
your socks. 

CHORUS. 



o 



RHYMES OF A RADICAL. 45 

EPISTLE TO TWO LITTLE GIRLS. 

(Jessie and Birdie.) 

NCE in pleasant springtime weather, 



Out upon a blooming heather, 
Sprays of vine and bud to gather, 

Walked I in a lotus dream ; 
And flowers of such fragrance never 

Had I then, nor since have seen. 

As I strayed, and half unknowing, 
By a fountain crystal flowing, 
Lo, I found two lillies growing 

Snow white on one slender stem ; 
Leaving lillies fragrant blowing ; 

Friendship's stalk supported them. 

Fragrant bloomed they there together, 
Out upon the lonesome heather. 
And unwilling them to sever 

Root and branch from soil I broke ; 
In my heart to bloom forever 

Planted I again the stalk. 

O, ye two white holy blossoms 
Fragrant blowing in my bosom. 
May no fate with unkind besom 

Tear thee from my lonely heart ! 
Fairy queens reign in my bosom 

Bidding all but jo}^ depart. 



46 RHYMES OF A RADICAT.. 



CUPID'S SHOT. 

T^EN maidens wandered in a wood 
1 To where from earth a fountain 
flowed — 
High up a cliff that frowning stood. 
The}^ were indeed a beauteous flock, 
Descended from a noble stock 
That traced its lineage back before 
The Roman eagle touched their shore, 
Ere fierce Suetonius to them came 
And quenched the holj^ Druid flame. 
Long ere Boadicea's arts 
Struck terror to th' invaders' hearts. 
And first in ravish beaut}^ these 
As well as first in pedigres. 
Each breast was full, the form divine. 
No reed-like breadth or masculine, 
And tall and straight as saplings grew 
Each under limb and firm each thew. 
The polished thighs, as smooth as art 
E 'er turned a granite shaft to mark 
The spot where lies the virtuous heart 
Or grace the proud triumphal arch, 
Descend with slow gradations down 
To where the knee swells out around. 



RHYMES OF A RADICAL. 47 

The taper calves (beloved of men) 

Gradated as the thighs descend 

And melt into the ankle round 

And slender foot that spurns the ground. 

From hip to heel the line descends 

Straight as a die and never bends, 

Yet gradual variation lends 

A charm that wild the heart-blood sends, 

And is too much for poet pens. 

The slender trunk, in beauty drest, 

Well balanced on the femurs rest. 

And sw^ays in graceful attitude 

Like some young poplar of the wood 

When by Zephyrus passing wooed. 

The frontal curve and back line straight 

No mortal art can imitate, 

The rounded arms do graceful move 

And wake and win the e3'e of love. 

The trunk and limbs divinely swell 

And form a columned pedestal. 

And it in turn supports again 

The crowning glory of the man. 

The whole a thing of beauty forms 

That praises God and life adorns. 

In dress they wore the hunting skirt 
Of doe skin tanned and beaded work, 
A silken baldric at the middle 
Held to its place a broidered kirtle. 



48 RHYMES OF A RADICAL. 

i\nd from its folds a dagger bright, 
Half ornament, peeped to the light. 
Each held in hand an ebon bow 
From whose thick centers colors flow 
Of some true knight who far on fields 
In joust of death his charger wheels. 
And flaming 'round his head who wields 
The keeny blade his foeman feels, 
Who for his lady seeks the fray 
While plain the day beam tracks its way, 
And folds her to his bosom tight. 
In dreams, amid the restful night. 

All wore the colors 'ceptin^ one 
Who blither than the blithest ran. 
Who laughed and sung with merr}^ shout 
And as the sunshine danced about. 
She bounded o'er the brooklet's flow 
As through the woods she chased the doe, 
She drew the cord both swift and strong 
And sped the slender shaft along. 
Which leaving straight the bended bow 
Was left imbeded in the roe. 
With sure aim and practiced eye 
She forced her arrows in the sky 
x\nd pierced the eagle as it swung 
Atwixt the mountain and the sun. 



RHYMES OF A RADICAL. 49 

Thus roved the maidens idly on, 

The step was careless, so the song. 

Sometimes but one, sometimes all sang 

Till wide the woodland welkin rang, 

And far and faint, but O, how sweet, 

The echoes did each strain repeat. 

As if half loth to recommence. 

But fain to hold in dalliance. 

So sped the morn, till at the fount 

The maidens stopped their steps to count. 

And spend the noon hour in the shade 

That spread inviting in the glade. 

Some lying on the grass reposed 

And negligent their charms exposed, 

Some meat produced and 'gan to eat, 

The glacis table both and seat. 

Whilst others hot from some short chase 

With limpid water lave the face, 

Or, galigaskins cast aside. 

The baldric from the waist untied. 

And clothed in only camisole. 

With shy laugh to the fountain stole 

To lave their limbs the water in. 

Safe from the prying eyes of men. 

These maids were what maids might have 

been 
Ere to the world sin entered in. 
Here unrestrained and by themselves 
They gave expression to themselves. 
4 



50 RHYMES OF A RADICAL. 

Ah ! such a scene one seldom sees 
Betwixt the compass of the seas. 
All speak of errant knights and bold 
Whose trust inviolate they hold, 
And whom they hope to soon behold, 
Except the maid with ebon bow 
From which no knightl}^ colors flow. 
She vowed no knight or squire on earth, 
No manored baron, kingly worth. 
Nor dignitary of the church, 
Nor scion of the field or bourse, 
Could her from virginhood divorce. 
Her life was free ; unfettered still 
She 'd roam the copse and climb the hill, 
She scorned the thought of Cupid's dart 
An entrance finding to her heart. 

"And I defy," she cried aloud, 
" Thou little archer of the cloud. 
Though God ye be in realms above 
My heart thou canst not fix with love." 
As thus she spoke with boastful lay 
A pleasant youth did pass that way, 
And by his side a cherub boy 
Whose bow was as a silver toy, 
'T was scarce a half span in its length, 
Its curve could hold but little strength. 
A quiver at his back was slung 
Which full of tinsel arrows hung. 



RHYMES OF A RADICAL. 51 

The peasant stopped in wonderment ; 
The maids a shout of laughter sent 
High pealing to the firmament. 

The merry maids the woods among, 
To have so sudden on them sprung 
The infant quaint and archer young, 
And see their bathing sisters run 
In gay confusion out among 
The screening copse, sight to prevent, 
The heavens split with merriment. 

Then spoke the boastful maid by choice : 
" My little man attend my voice. 
What dost thou with thy silver bow? 
Thou can'st not pierce the fleeing roe. 
Nor stay the eagle in its flight 
By setting o'er it shades of night." 
She thus addressed, and thus replied 
The archer from the peasant's side : 
«* I pierce, O maid, what e'er I see ; 

What Psyche^ prompts and pleases me." 
'' Then pierce my heart," she gayly said, 
" It never yet from wound hath bled. 
How e'er, I fear thy arrow's metal 
Won't even prick my hunting kirtle. 
I '11 stand thy mark beside yon tree 
Where plays the sunlight full and free, 

1 Wife of Cupid. 



52 RHYMES OF A RADICAL. 

That all may judge if strength there be 
In th}^ small bow, or skill in thee." 
She thus ; and then off to the left 
With merry mien ten paces stepped, 
And lest, she said, 't should intercept 
She swept the kirtle from her breast 
And to the archer's eye and art 
Exposed the bosom at the heart. 

The milk-white breasts glowed in the sun 

And envious admiration won. 

It was enough gods to enthrall 

To see that bosom rise and fall. 

The maids who fled crept back to see 

The archer and his archery. 

But when the}^ chanced to catch the eye 

Of the slim youth who saw them fly. 

Though now as usual the}^ appear. 

The eye bent down, the red flamed clear, 

Which made them all the lovelier. 

The cherub ere his skill he 'd try 

His dove-mark scanned with ravished 

eye, 
And as he hesitating hung 
Clear on the air this challenge rung : 
" Why hesitate? I dare ye shoot ! 
Prove what thou art, and what art not. 
If thou hast skill and strength thy bow 
Let this breast feel, these watchers know. 



RHYMES OF A RADICAL. 53 

Again I say, I dare ye shoot ! 

Prove what thou art, and what art not." 

Then thrice three times he twanged his 

bow 
As if to them his skill he 'd show ; 
He drew the cord with God-like might, 
The tinsel shaft sped swdft as light, 
And to the archer's wild delight 
The maiden's bosom staid its flight. 
He flung a kiss, laughed long and loud 
As swift he vanished on a cloud. 
The boaster tugged with might and main 
To free her bosom from the bane ; 
But all her efforts were in vain. 
She could not ease the stinging pain. 
Too proud to own, or gods invoke. 
Oft' at the barb the shaft she broke, 
And through the wood then sped apart 
The dart still sticking in her heart. 




54 RHYMES OF A RADICAL. 



THOU CRUEL OLD NOVEMBER. 

WITH restless hands you rend apart 
The petals of the flow'rs, 
You tear the mosses, trail the vines 

Bedecking Nature's bow'rs, 
You seem to hate your brother months 

October and September, 
And crush their pride with vengeful spite. 
Thou cruel old November. 

With rowdy song you roll along 

The winter cumuli, 
The wurts of Summer listening hear 

And fold their leaves and die. 
Supine upon the grass they lie 

Death-struck in ev'ry member. 
Slain by thy damp and frosty touch 

Thou cruel old November. 

The woodland birds have ceased to sing 

And hasted far away. 
Chased by your ice-mailed warriors to 

Some sunny southern ba}^. 
And there they '11 stay secure and safe 

Until the seasons render 
An easy passage for their flight, 

Thou cruel old November. 



RHYMES OF A RADICAL. 55 

Tlie rigid limbs of leafless trees, 

Clank mournfully together, 
And not a smile the heavens beam 

All through this sullen weather. 
Though not as cold as next to thee 

The bright and crisp December, 
His peer thou art, in dreary days. 

Thou cruel old November. 

You twist of Summer's leaves a wreath. 

For Summer's grave to wear. 
Then ope the gates and winter rides 

In on the raw, chill air. 
Your dankish breath I long shall t'eel 

And dreary dearth remember. 
Almost a blot upon the year 

Thou cruel old November. 




56 RHYMES OF A RADICAL. 



EPISTLE TO A RESIDENT MISS. 

" I tent less and want less 
Their roomy fireside ; 
But hanker and canker 
To see their cursed pride." 

— Biirnx. 

WHY that averted look or stony stare 
When on the street, O maid, you pass 
us by ? 
Why the disdain I see for those who wear 
The thread-bare robe, that lurks in your 
cold eye? 
What mighty gap 'twixt thee and them spreads 
out? 
What differs you from all the common ilk? 
That from the honest, hard-worked passing 
lout 
You should, in hasty terror, draw your silk. 

Is there contamination in his touch? 

Or doth a pestilence from him exhale? 
That ye your unpaid draper}^ should clutch 

And, by your acts, his near approach bewail. 
Fear not ; if on your rustling train should fall 

Yon plowman's urine or his excrement. 
It would not spot and stink it as your soul 

Would spot and stink it if 't were poured on it. 



RHYMES OF A RADICAL. 57 

Were ye your inward ugliness to view 

And hideous deformity of soul, 
As those who looked upon Medusa, you 

In frozen horror down in death would roll. 
My blood in frenzied fury oft hath burned, 

My heart hath almost broken with its grief, 
To see the obscure poor thus meanly spurned, 

And for no other cause, like dog or thief. 

Say maiden, heifer, what on earth have j^?^ 

To raise ye 'bove the common lot — 'bove us ? 
I'our father has a dozen farms, 'tis true, 

That stuck together are with mortgages. 
If cross the stubborn facts as the}^ repose 

The all-revealing ray of truth should slant. 
Unto the public eye it would disclose 

An outward plenty and an inward want. 

What though ye owned this western continent 

That for its milk-breasts has two mighty seas. 
And slumbers 'twixt them like a youth, content. 

Upon his Delia's bosom in heart's ease ; 
What though 3*e owned the countless herds 
that graze 

On western plains, or woody eastern slopes, 
And lived in palaces? All would not raise — 

Possession mere — above the common 
" blokes." 



58 RHYMES OF A RADICAL. 

A rotten thought is screwed in the world's 
brain 

Andbabbitt'd 'round with superstition hoar, 
HydrauHc rammed 'gain and again 

B}^ each succeeding age from infant yore. 
And 't is that a m3^sterious alchemy 

In mere possession of a ducat dwells, 
The more the better, and that mortal clay 

By it 's transformed and into finer swells. 

O, curst delusion ! born of bastard devil ! 
Begotten by same sniffling pup in hell, 
Who was from Satan's smoking entrails 
dropped 
When from the azure skies pursued he fell ; 
May pals}^ sieze on all th}^ stinking bones I 
And may thy flesh, if flesh thou hast, be 
dung I 
Forever chained among the shrieks and groans 
Of curst Gehenna ! place from whence thou 
sprung. 

And, lady, if I thus may dignify 

A bunch of cloth and flesh and bones and 
soul 
That microscopic is to God's keen eye. 

And which to man doth b}' no tenure hold, 



RHYMES OF A RADICAL. 59 

This know, and know it well, nor ne'er forget, 
Feel it by day and nightly of it dream. 

In future years 't will bring thee no regret 
But jov and life : love is the thing sufreme. 

If this be true, and who will dare deny? 

Thou art a barren and a fruitless field. 
What love hath ye, O maid, for those who cry 

In poverty? What sympathetic yield? 
And though a virgin, thou art wed to worms 

That lie with thee and breed the broken 
heart ; 
And these are self, and narrow pride which 
spurns 

The toiling ones who bear the humble part. 

May heaven warm thy soul's contractile walls 

And with life's essence make them to expand 
Until the shadow of its greatness falls 

Healthful, umbrageous in a barren land I 
The sumnmni bommi of the life we live, 

The ne -plus ultra of the life to come. 
Is this and nothing else : to love and give, 

One points the action, one 's the action done. 

There grows a teat in ev'ry human breast 
That full is filled with sympathetic flow. 

But must, to give its uveous blood, be pressed 
By the rude fingers of a fellow's woe. 



60 RHYMES OF A RADICAL. 

When on a brother or a sister falls 

The smiting hand of out or inward grief, 

By heaven's law, by will ex and 2>«pressed* 
All others are a corps to give relief. 

There 's no such thing as men in all the earth ; 

All men are but the parts of one great man. 
And make the whole enfeebled, wreck his 
worth. 

By seggregations into caste and clan. 
But, maiden, drop thy ways unwomanly 

And cease to think thou'rt of some finer stuff; 
A healthy member of the man to be 

To vou and me, to all, should be enough. 

* Revealed and natural law. 




RHYMES OF A RADICAL. 



WHAT GREATNESS IS. 



61 



4 

I. i 



w 



HAT man in all the world 
^ As brave as him 
Who doth, 
Contrary to himself, 
Refuse to sin? 



What man in all the world 1 
As tall as him 

Who stoops : 

From glory's vaulted fane ^ 

To humble men? j 

II. 

Who seeks to purify ; 

A government ; 

Corrupt, '■ 

A minister of God \ 

Is called and sent. 1 

That man a Christian is, 

And wears a star i 
Sun bright, 

Who seeks to break the chains ' ] 

A people wear. \ 



62 RHYMES OF A RADICAL. 



THE DEATH OF INNOCENCE. 

I ONCE did dream a dream so wonderful, 
Nor will I say that it was all a dream, 
For part indeed was truth, part fancy was. 
That dwelt upon me in the drowsy night. 
Methought I lay in a deliciouSi wood. 
Embowered in the handiwork of God, 
Itself a part — song birds, and nodding trees 
Which, sweeping low their emerald branche's, 
The old tale told unto the daisies 'round 
Their gnarled roots in harmonious sonnets. 

As through an avenue my sight I ran 
My glance fell on a tender, barefoot boy 
Up climbing with a wearied step and slow 
To where a crystal fountain thrust itself 
In transport rude from a scarped cliff high up. 
Soft were his eyes and blue as violet 
Smiling sun kissed by the moist light of morn, 
Itself a prism dividing rays of light. 
Reflecting blue, absorbing orange and red. 

A wealth of golden hair like a ripe sheaf 
Fell down his back, around his temples clung, 
And in each action of the lad there lurked 
An unlearned naivette and winsome grace. 



RHYMES OF A RADICAL. 63 

Then as he stooped to quaft'the fountain's flow 
That, laughing, leaped into a fern}^ dell. 
And laid his cap upon a gray,* mossed log 
I saw writ plain bv higher hands upon 
A wide calm brow the legend, " Innocence." 

When he had drank and from the ground arose 
Refreshed he sped with vigor thus renewed. 
Till coming to the stone whereby I lay 
Was asked to stay with kindly look and voice 
And with me hold converse. I farther spake, 
As in mine own his little palm was pressed. 
And said : " Where goest, child? and who thy 

father? 
Thy way was long ; thou bearest dust of 

travel." 

*' Where goeth I ! " he said as if astonished 

quite, 
*' And who my father? God — Jehovah — Lord. 
It is not meet that I should loiter here 
For sin besets me hard with foul intent 
And for security I flee — to God. 
Long is my way and night is coming on, 
The shadows thick are falling in the glen. 
The bulbul calls and night-birds trim their 

songs, 
The fleeing hours do bid me haste ; farewell." 



64 RHYMES OF A RADICAL. 

And then on me he smiled so sweetly that 
Methought the presence of my God, indeed, 
Was in the child. And having spoken thus 
With quickened step lie pressed his onward 
way, 

And I, awakened from my drowsy dream 
As the proud sun came wheeling into view 
And shadows fled, nor stopped to look behind. 
Was woe — w^as pain-struck full — to find my bo}-, 
My boy ! — 7nine own cherubic boy ! — cold I — 
dead! 

I held his little hand clasped in mine own. 
But as I slept his life lamp flickered out. 
And onl}^ clay, a carnival for worms, 
Was left me for to mend m}- broken heart. 
With scarce a year sojourning 'mong us here 
He wearied of our compan}^ so gross, 
And in the night was led by angels forth 
To wander happy in the infinite. 

Rest, tender soul, in purity and peace. 
Rest in the arms of Christ's immortal love. 
Thy Father — God — my child, hath called thee 

home 
To taste the boundless joys of the above. 
Thou wert, I ween, my vision in the wood, 
The child with "innocence" upon his brow, 
Who fled from sin in haste unto his God. 
Rest on, thy soul is in its haven now. 



RHYMES OF A RADICAL. 65 



VILLAGE ARISTOCRACY. 

" To make us love our country 
Our country ought to be lovely." 
— Burke. 

Awful words for awful crimes. 



SAD, indeed, our little village \ 

Cursed is, beneath a ban, ] 

But 't is true ; and this foul stigma ; 

Is the plutocratic clan.* ! 

II. ; 

There 's a set about the village 

With more money far than brains, 
You all will know of whom I speak ;; 

So I will not name their names. i 

! 

And what is true of this small town, | 

Is true of all the others, j 

Though large or' small it matters not, j 

In this they all are brothers. j 



* While the author believes in a " substantial equality " among 
men, in fine is a disciple of Bellamy, he wages no warfare simply 
because of possession. Indeed he numbers some warm personal 
friends among the rich. The invective of this poem is leveled 
only at those whom wealth has made supercilious, and they only 
are contemplated in " plutocratic clan." 
5 



RHYMES OF A RADICAL. 
IV. 

They wield the rod of sov'reign sway 
Over Church and State and all, 

They 've acres broad, they 've check- 
books large. 
And — they 've narrow brains and small. 

V. 

Ha! brains? 't is there I make mistake! 

Such I question if they 've got, 
But gild their speech in polished phrase 

For to hide its dearth of thought. 

VI. 

They 're a pack of apish beings 

Imitating what they see, 
That 's provided it has mone}^ 

And some notoriety. 

VII. 

With their paunches wide distended 
But their souls just the reverse, 

And a plethora prevailing 

In the stomach of their purse. 

VIII. 

Round they go thumbscrews applying 
To the lowly, old and young. 

Though unfit to make decisions 

Loose their tongues in judgment run. 



RHYMES OF A RADICAL. 67 

IX. 

Ill their hands they hold the plummet 

And before it all must pass, 
It is theirs to well determine (?) 

Who is wise or who 's an ass. 

X. 

But O grief! the cord 's elastic, 

And it has an antic way 
Of contracting when the scions 

Of the rich must measured be. 

XI. 

Do their boys do things illegal 
Transgress making on the law? 

Things immoral : 't is but wild oats 
And of course these they must sow. 

XII. 

Are their daughters into trouble? 

Unwed found to be with child ? 
They must shoot the erring laddie 

Lured by her lustful wdle. 

XIII. 

Erring? Yes, of all the laddies 
Of a host that I might name. 

There 's not one unless encouraged 
Would to virtue offer shame. 



68 RHYMES OF A RADICAL. 

XIV. 

For the maid extenuation, 

For the lad a curse they have, 

She 's the daughter of a Croesus, 
He's the offspring: of a slave. 

XV. 

If their sons by wile or promise 

Work some poor man's daughter harm 

Loud they shout: " The bitch enticed 
him!" 
Or, " The king can do no harm I " 

XVI. 

O, what miseries do follow 

In the wake of being poor, 
And this plutocratic judgment 

Is the worst that we endvu*e. 

XVII. 

Money is, I ween, the center 

Of the nineteenth century, 
'T is the nucleus that 's forming 

Caste and aristocracy. 

XVIII. 

'Tis a sun whose baleful shinings 
From the central pit of night 

For our grief and theirs eternal 
Warms a bastard spawn to life. 



RHYMES OF A RADICAL. 69 

XIX. 

Of the pow'rs 'mong men ©btaining 
Bred on earth or bred in hell, 

This gigantic curse of money 
Is the rottenest and fell. 

XX. 

'Tis the pow'r that shields oppression 

As it is of it the cause, 
'T is the warp and woof of evil 

And the father of our woes. 

XXI. 

'T is the pow'r that from the dunce-block 
Lifts the fool that all despise, 

With authority invests him 
Over men both just and wise. 

XXII. 

Bursts the door of cot and senate, 
Buys the lass and robs the swain 

Who doth love her with his whole heart, 
Blasts his future with heart pain. 

XXIII. 

Lifteth men of basest instincts. 

Who the halter do deserve, 
High above the ones by nature 

They are fitted but to serve. 



70 RHYMES OF A RADICAL. 

XXIV. 

O how oft I 've seen, how often, 
Not in dreams, I speak of facts. 

Seen the fool in golden jacket 

Lay the lash on wise men's backs. 

XXV. 

Seen the bigot, narrow-minded, 

Barricaded with his gold. 
Drive the poor from warmth and shelter, 

And their halting foot-steps scold. 

XXVI. 

A.nd I cursed the social ethics 
That unto a part would give 

Stores of wealth, a vast abundance, 
And to others but to live. 

XXVII. 

But to live when lo, they labored 

From the rising of the sun 
Till the even dim was on them 

And the stars came one by one. 

XXVIII. 

Long the father's hours of toiling. 
Short his hours of blest repose, 

And the state of dreamless slumber 
Is the only joy he knows. 



RHYMES OF A RADICAL. 71 

XXIX. 

In his cot await his bairnies 

Not with healthful prattle sweet, 

But with wonder if he '11 bring them 
Once in life what they can eat. 

XXX. 

And the mother (heaven pity 

Such a woful lot as her's, 
Grant a respite to her labors 

And cessation to her tears ! ) 

XXXI. 

Sees unto their ingle coming 

Mouths to feed and backs to clothe, 

Hearts to fashion, minds to polish, 
And their store a famished love. 

XXXII. 

I have seen the sick and maimed ones 
Who in comfort should have sat, 

Battling for a crust and shelter, 
And the rich were after that. 

XXXIII. 

And again I cursed the system 
That such misery hath made, 

Of a neighbor made a demon 
And a harlot of his maid. 



72 RHYMES OF A RADICAL. 

XXXIV. 

For the father sells the daughter 
And the daughter sells herself, 

She in marriage plays the harlot, 
He a brute, and all for pelf. 

XXXV. 

O this practice fell, inhuman, 
Worse than all the tales of old, 

Daughters bred like mares, and bovine, 
By their parents ; and for gold. 

XXXVI. 

And the children of such unions? 

Ev'ry mother's son of them 
Is a bastard, sirs, begotten. 

Shaped in hell and born to sin. 

XXXVII. 

True, they specious call it marriage 

And the courts it legalize. 
Marriage? ha! that holy blending 

At its very mention flies. 

XXXVIII. 

Hear 3'e maids ! truth brands a harlot 

Whosoever of your lot 
That for pelf doth lie in wedlock 

And in hell her thighs shall rot.* 

♦Num. v: 27. 



'rhymes of a radical. 73 

XXXIX. 

Yet, O God I how can you help it? 

If ye independent be, 
You must toil both late and early 

With a penny for your fee. 

XL. 

And besides must be despised 
As a paid-for '' working girl " 

By the rich bedizened daughter, 
And the sensual, soulless churl. 

XLI. 

Hear ye parents ! truth demands it ; 

If ye dare your daughters force- 
Force to wed some unloved rich man. 

Wed for better or for worse— 

XLII. 

You 're a party to the sinning. 
You 're of all the rest the one 

Who to God and man and virtue 
Lo, the greatest wrong hath done. 

XLIII. 

Oft we shudder at the fire-side. 

And our blood is '* thick'd with cold ' 

As we read of human blood poured 
To the demon gods of old. 



74 RHYMES OF A RADICAL. 

XLIV. 

How the pagan sons of Ammon 
Gave their first-born to the tire, 

And from Moloch's brazen fingers 
Dropped them shrieking on the pyre. 

XLV. 

How the mothers of the far east 

Cast the hving baby girl 
To the serpents and the sea-cows* 

Of the Ganges' sacred whirl. 

XLVI. 

Had I daughters pure and holy 

And as beautiful as good, 
I would rather, rather see them 

In the river's awful flood ; 

XL VII. 

Rather see them on the slave-blocks 
Sold to herd in filth with kine. 

Than to see them at the altar 
Sold to be a concubine. 

XLVIII. 

These are words of awful import, 
But we live in awful times — 



♦Though now confined to Africa, hippopotami were once com- 
mon in Asiatic waters. 



RHYMES OF A RADICAL. 

'Tis my province, 'tis my duty— 
Awful words for awfid crimes, 

XLIX. 

These are words of awful import 
And they stab the social heart ; 

Let it bleed, 'tis not unjustly, 
From its last drop may it part. 

Part Second. 
I. 
And I heard the nations sighing 

That in wedlock thus were bound, 
And the world' did shake and tremble 
Like a thistle at the sound. 

II. 

Then I saw the civic fabric 
Of the nations wildly tossed, 

For the sanctity of marriage 

And the strength of home were lost, 

III. 

And the nations were as old men 
Whence the flame of youth is fled, 

Were as Sampson blind and feeble 
Grinding in the miller's shed. 



76 



76 RHYMES OF A RADICAL. 

IV. 

Hung their hoar beards on their bosoms, 
Unkempt was their silver hair, 

Shrunk their brows, like parchment 
wrinkled, 
And the frosts of death were there. 

V. 

Bent their gaunt frames thin like shadows 
When the sun is in the west, 

Bent like shadows gaunt and ghastly 
When in distant moonlight drest. 

VI. 

Men were rushing 'round half frantic 
Seeking everything to give — 

Giving cordials, life elixirs ( 1 ) 
That the dying pow'rs might live. 

VII. 

But in spite of all the potions 
That the civic doctors gave 

Feebler grew the grand dominions. 
Bent they nearer to the grave. 

VIII. 

And I wondered why the people. 
Like the owlet bird of night. 

Sought in darkness for specifics 
And were bhnd to noonday light. 



RHYMES OF A RADICAL. 77 

IX. 

Stood they like a child at even 
When the shadows thickly fall, 

And the death damps of the day-time 
Like a curse are over all — 

X. 

When 't is neither dark nor daylight 
But the strip that lies between, 

Frowns of night and sunshine smiling 
Woven, tangled like a dream — 

XI. 

Who hath heard some thrilling story 
That the grannies have to tell 

Of the awful things that met them — 
Headless spirits back from hell — 

XII. 

When in youth at even's falling 
They did walk beside the tarn — 

Souls of murdered maids and devils 
Vengence seeking or their harm — 

XIII. 

Wild-eyed watching for the spirits 
That from other worlds come back, 

While, O heavens ! one is s^rinning 
Like a demon at his back. 



78 RHYMES OF A RADICAL. 

XIV. 

Like a maid who seeks a philtre 

Of the necromancer's art 
For to win and keep a lover 

When that power is in the heart 

XV. 

As the child in pale, mute terror 

Watched for ghosts out through the door 

While one danced the goblin mazes 
Just behind him on the floor, 

XVI. 

So have all the civic doctors. 
And so have the most of men. 

Looked without for cause and cure 
When they should have looked within. 

XVII. 

*' Look within I " a thousand stentors 
With one might}^ voice call out, 

** Look within ! sirs, for your safet}^ ; 
Look within, and not without ! " 

XVIII. 

Should they turn their eyes m3^opic 
Where the home fire redly flares 

Plagues they 'd see and rotten curses 
Toasting in their easy chairs. 



RHYMES OF A RADICAL. 79 

XIX. 

Demon chemists there distilling, 
With a skill but devils know, 

A curst virus, noxious, deadly. 
That will kill the nations slow. 

XX. 

Leeches breeding and prolific 

With a skill above an art, 
Destined to suck out the life blood 

Copious from the social heart. 

XXI. 

Sons of Plutus there are forging 

Earthly bondage for us all, 
While their fellows fire enameled 

Forge in hell chains for the soul. 

Part Third. 



It is a common sight to see 
And yet, O ! how distressing. 

Small men in mighty places put 
And what they 've not professing. 

II. 

** Statesmen"? ha ! you call them " states- 
men"? 
Such in them I can not see ; 



80 RHYMES OF A RADICAL. 

Asses, sir ; if more, then devils ; 
One or 't other they must be. 

III. 

Like the fool-bird, called the ostrich, 
They have hid their heads and thought 

Other safe 'cause in their plenty 
They the wretchedness saw not. 

IV. 

And with all their *' wise enactments,'^ 
*' Legislation," and what not. 

Growing is the force of devils. 
Slayers curst and addled sot. 

V. 

Why is it — why have the nations 
Fallen from their high estate? 

Why stand they like men enfeebled 
Weeping at the temple gate? 

VI. 

Why is it — why have the nations 

To the verge of ruin come? 
Plain you ask and plain I answer, 

Wealth has prostituted home. 



RHYMES OF A RADICAL. 81 

VII. 

There was once a time when marriage 

Was regarded as divine, 
Now 'tis but a " civil contract " 

I believe the " wise " define. 

VIII. 

Once the maidens of the country 
Loved the laddies whom they wed ; 

Holy were the children born them, 
Undefiled the marriage bed. 

IX. 

Heavens ! now upon their bosoms, 
In the hours of amVous rest. 

For his wealth they clasp their lovers 
Lip to lip and breast to breast.* 



X. 

True they specious call it marriage 

And the courts it legalize ; 
Marriage? ha I that holy blending 

At its very mention flies. 

* While this is more than a poet's fancy, the author does not 
mean to intimate there are no noble exceptions. " In 1867 there 
were 9,937 divorces; in 1886, 25,535. In the twenty years between 
these dates there were 328,716 divorces." For this alarming in- 
crease he has but one solution ; the one given. 
6 



82 RHYMES OF A RADICAL. 

XI. 

Is it wonder that the nations 
Feeble are, of small amount, 

When the stream of their existence 
Is corrupted at its fount? 

XII. 

Cursed be the social ethics 
That this misery hath made, 

Of a neighbor made a demon 
And a harlot of his maid. 

XIII. 

Of the pow'rs 'mong men obtaining, 
Bred on earth or bred in hell, 

This gigantic curse of money 
Is the rottenest and fell. 

XIV. ^ 

Men arrayed against their fellows 

In industrial warfare are. 
Some can only rise when others 

Victims fall in this curst war. 

XV. 

Mounts some Gould with pow'rs supernal ? 

Or infernal 't should be said — 
Look ! on what hath he ascended ? 

Living bodies of the dead. 



RHYMES OF A RADICAL. 83 

XVI. 

True, we talk with many struttings 

Of our mighty financiers, 
But each million is from bones ground, 

Bloody sweat and wails and tears. 

XVII. 

Men are striving, souls are selling 

Anything^ that they may be 
Living in luxurious plenty. 

Classed as " our nobility." 

XVIII. 

Sure as heaven we are building. 
By the pow'r that wealth affords. 

In this loved land of freedom 

Kings and princes, dukes and lords. 

XIX. 

And the idea is growing 

'Mong the people of to-day 
That there is in gold alchemy 

That will make a finer clay. 

XX. 

O how long ere all the people 
Will this present form forsake ! 

O how long ere fools and statesmen 
Bury war and serve the State ! 



84 RHYMES OF A RADICAL. 

XXI. 

Blessed be the pow'r supernal 
That lifts fallen men to man, 

Perish from beneath the heavens 
All that makes him less than man. 

XXII. 

" History" has been the writing 
Of the things that monarchs do, 

Of their wars and dark intriguing 
Fame to have and revenue. 

XXIII. 

" Politics" has been and yet is 
In accord with notions old, 

Fame forever, bloody battles, 
Provinces and piles of gold. 

XXIV. 

But a day is dawning brighter 

Than a poet ever saw, 
In which men will dwell as brothers 

Banded by a humane law. 

XXV. 

And the hist'ry of the future, 

If a history it be, 
Will not be that of the past time. 

But a sociology. 



RHYMES OF A RADICAL. 85 

XXVI. 

Men will study not the kingly, 

But industrial, social caste. 
Then and now with care comparing 

And thus profit by the past. 

XXVII. 

Ah ! the politics will change then, 
Wise men reigning we shall see, 

And instead of lords of vassals 
They the serving ones will be. 

XXVIII. 

Then the visual field concentric 
f)f the statesmen will extend. 

And they '11 see besides themselves that 
There are living other men. 

XXIX. 

There are living noble women. 
Lads and lasses, children fair. 

Who of what the nation offers 

With themselves should equal share. 

XXX. 

Things ahead upon a straight line 
Are the only things they see, 

But in front of self they stand by 
Some mysterious jugglery. 



86 RHYMES OF A RADICAL. 

XXXI. 

For their views on social science, 
On all questions I suspect, 

Politics and e'en religion, 

Through themselves they look direct. 

XXXII. 

Of all media among men 
Yea, among the devils, too. 

Self is basest, most abhorrent. 
And to nature the least true. 

XXXIII. 

Self is but a carnal prism 
Which will let no ray benign 

On the soul from foreign virtue 
In its white completeness shine. 

XXXIV. 

Self 's a glass concavo-convex 
With the convex turning in. 

This it makes of mighty stature 
That as slender shadows dim. 

XXXV. 

Falling are the scales myopic 

From their eyes as Saul's of old, 

And as he, in clearer vision, 

Greater things they '11 soon behold. 



RHYMES OF A RADICAL. 87 

XXXVI. 

In the lowly, toiling millions, 

Stay of all prosperity, 
Toilers of the farm and work-shop. 

Men and brethren they will see. 

XXXVII. 

And they '11 labor for their fellows 

With a holy zeal and blest. 
Labor for the thin pinched infant 

Tugging at a withered breast. 

XXXVIII. 

Labor for earth's weary toilers 

In the humble walks of life. 
Labor for the peace of nations 

And the death knell of all strife. 

XXXIX. 

Home to them has been a harem 
Where a soldier force might breed, 

And tax-payers ; but in future 
Home will other questions lead. 

XL. 

So it should, for on it 's builded 
That proud structure we call state, 

And their destinies are blended 
As effect and cause relate. 



88 RHYMES OF A RADICAL. 

XLI. 

Day of blest rejuvenation 

Freighted but with hopeful hours, 
Bearing in th}^ breast elixirs 

For the withered, failing pow'rs. 

XLII. 

Glad I hail thy blessed dawning, 
And my spirit lifts and sings 

Till each atom in my body 
Like a silver bell out rings. 

XLIII. 

O the shoutings and the salvos 
That your footsteps will attend 

When your mission full of mercy 
All the people comprehend. 

XLIV. 

And the holy heart-fires burning 
On each golden altar, when 

Waving palms they shout to heaven, 
" Peace on earth good will to men.' 

XLV. 

"Flame the fires and peal the salvos. 
Wave the palms high over head. 

Peace without and in prevailing 
For industrial war is dead." 



RHYMES OF A RADICAL. 89 

XLVI. 

Swift approaching winged with heaven 

Marriage day of men I see 
In which they will love their fellows 

Though of guild the same they be. 

Part Fourth. 
I. 

Through the darkness here surrounding 

I into the future gaze, 
And at last upon our story 

See the sun fires brightly blaze. 

II. 

See a maid with myrtle fillet 
And a scroll held in her hand 

Flying from the courts of heaven 
With a message for our land. 

III. 

On the high air stream her tresses 

Like a comet spun of gold, 
Round her rosy loins a vesture 

Veiling half of clouds enfold. 

IV. 

Eyes like sapphires mixed with diamonds 
Shining through a film of tears, 



90 RHYMES OF A RADICAL. 

On her cheeks the glow of living, 
On her lips a smile she wears. 



And a head proud as Greek Helen's 
On her perfect shoulders rests, 

Queenly poised but still not haughty. 
With a simple myrtle drest. 

. VI. 

What a form ! 't is one as lovely 
As those of the maids of eld. 

For whose loves the gods of heaven 
Came to earth and suffered hell * 

VII. 

Swifter than the winged lightning 
Flaming thwart a summer sky 

On her mission full of merc}^ 

Sweeps this maiden from on high, 

VIII. 

Bathed her passage in a glory 
That no mortal words can tell, 

Only 't is like on His birthnight 

Round the watching shepherds fell. 

*Gen. vi. 



RHYMES OF A RADICAL. 91 

IX. 

As above old Mt. Moriah 

Once a flaming angel swung,* 

So this maiden ere alighting 
Over earth a moment hung. 



High upon a tropic mountain 
In a fragrant vine-clad grove, 

With a magic learned of angels 
Lo, a bow'r of flow'rs she wove. 

• 

XI. 

Beds she made of white tuberoses 
Laid in order on jasmine, 

And of calla lillies pillows 

Fringed around with eglantine. 

XII. 

Next she wove of ev'ry blossom 

Amaranth, anemone, 
EvVy bud and ev'ry blossom 

Good to smell and good to see — 

XIII. 

Into coverlets she wove them 
For her pleasant beds to wear, 

I Chron. xxi. 



92 RHYMES OF A RADICAL. 

And she dipt them in a ruby 
Solvent in an infant's tear. 

XIV. 

What a home and what an inmate ! 

Mistress and the maker, too, 
Fairer than a faun or fair}^ 

Ever dreamed or ever knew. 

XV. 

From Chindara's* magic mountain 
Masters came of most repute. 

And into each bud and blossom 
Breathed the spirit of the lute. 

XVI. 

Round it swelled a song half hidden, 
Sweet as when at night we hear 

Half asleep a strain impassioned 
Plaintive on the drowsy air. 

XVII. 

From her lofty elevation 

Down on men this maiden smiled 

Shyly, archly, as earth's maidens 
When by lover tease — beguiled. 

*A fabulous mountain where musical instruments play con- 
stantly. 



RHYMES OF A RADICAL. 93 

XVII. 

And the nations waked from slumber 
Upward turned their failing sight, 

Crying with a voice enfeebled 
"Abisag ! our Shunammite ! 

XIX. 

*' Daughter, long, O long, we 've sought thee 
Morn and eve throughout the land. 
Sought from Jordan to the great sea 
And Beer-sheba unto Dan. 

XX. 

" 'Mong the nations by the Nile stream 
And the maidens of the North, 
From the Orient to the far West, 

Sought thee, maiden, back and forth. 

XXI. 

" Thou art come, O fair immortal. 
Come our waiting sight to bless 
With thy wondrous eyes antalgic 
And thy wealth of golden tress. 

XXII. 

" See ! the death damp's on each forehead 
And the death glare 's in each eye, 
Feeble are we now as old men 
And oblivion's grave is nigh. 



94 RHYMES OF A RADICAT.. 

XXIII. 

** Over us the hot samiel 

Of the desert land hath swept, 
And to earth like broken rushes 

Sink we down unmourned, unwept." 

XXIV. 

*' Blest be thou O virgin daughter I 
Blest be thou our Shunammite ! 
We, as David, pray thou warm us 
On thy bosom back to life. 

XXV. 

"^O but once to taste those red lips, 
Once upon that breast to lie, 
Then to death we bid defiance 
For we know we can not die. 

XXVI. 

** Nor for once but aye, forever, 
On thy bosom to recline 
Wish we maid in holy union, 
Thou as ours and we as thine. 

XXVII. 

** Thou art her who from this death spell 
Only back our souls can win, 

. And we hail thee, maid immortal, 
Daughter of the Christ of men." 



RHYMES OF A RADICAL. 95 

XXVIII. 

Speaking thus in slow procession 
Moved the fretful nations on, 

Toiling up the gentle mountain 
To her bower of love and song. 

XXIX. 

• 

At the door she bashful met them 
Panting from their heavy climb, 

Glazed each eye, each arm was palsied, 
On their lips death's reeking rime. 

XXX. 

Then as blushes hot and lovely 
O'er her perfect features past, 

As do circles o'er a fountain 
When therein a pebble 's cast, 

XXXI. 

Wide she swept her bower's curtain 

With a taper hand and slim. 
And in voice almost a whisper 

Shyly said to them, " Come in." 

Part Fifth. 

I. 

Lo, again I look in visions 
And the nations I behold. 



96 RHYMES OF A RADICAL. 

Not the withered fretful gray-beards 
That I saw in days of old. 

II. 

For the holy maid polyandrous, 
Living in her mountain wood, 

From the grave upon her bosom 
Back the feeble powers has wooed. 

III. 

From their brows like parchment wrinkled 
Wiped the hoar frosts of decay, 

From the lips of grand dominions 
Kissed death's purpling rime away. 

IV. 

Lit the youth fire in each glazed eye, 
Rounded out each shrunken limb, 

Stirred the whole with wholesome vigor 
More than ever known to men. 

V. 

See ! she moves among them stately, 
Wife beloved and honored queen, 

Nurse who on her bosom warmed them, 
Mother of the new regime. 



RHYMES OF A RADICAL. 97 

VI. 

As the honey from the bruised comb 

Odorous, ambrosial drips, 
So a virtue and antalgic 

Distill subtile from her paps. 

VII. 

Round her with hilarious shoutings 

Groups a splendid progeny. 
Life threads for the civic fabric, 

Moulders of its destiny. 

VIII. 

O my soul what raptures stir thee ! 

Through my veins what lightning runs ! 
On my sight what light is breaking ! 

To my ears what concord comes ! 

IX. 

To my scent what odorous waftings ! 

To my taste what lotus bud ! 
Mixing with my blood what music 

Stirs and makes me half a god ! 

X. 

As with open eyes prophetic 

I into the future gaze. 
And at last upon our story 

See the sun fires brightly blaze. 

7 



98 RHYMES OF A RADICAL. 

XI. 

See a maid with myrtle fillet 
And a scroll held in her hand, 

Flying from the courts of heaven 
With a message for our land. 

XII. 

Men from man have rudely broken 
As have worlds from off the sun, 

And in guilds antagonistic 
Fragmentary wander on. 

XIII. 

Lo, she comes in power synthetic 
Men again to wed to man, 

From this old earth to abolish 
Hateful caste and hateful clan. 

XIV. 

Shout my soul, nor cease thy shouting 
Till the airy ambient rings, 

Shout till earth and heaven's concave 
In united sonnet sings. 

XV. 

Swifter fly O maid immortal 

Cinctured with the clouds of day, 

Louder call to jarring mortals 
Their unhallowed strife to stay. 



RHYMES OF A RADICAL. 99 

XVI. 

Ere behind me falls the curtain 
That shall end all mortal view, 

With the timbrel loud and pipings 
Heart rejoiced to welcome you. 

XVII. 

O to live till here and married 
To the governments of men 

Thou art, maid, then not unwilling 
Will I walk death's mystic glen. 

XVIII. 

On thy holy, heaving bosom 

But to rest a little while 
As thy son, then strengthened I will 

" Shuffle oft' this mortal coil." 

XIX. 

Once to feel thy cooling fingers 
On my tortured, aching brow. 

Once to smile on me as mother 
Ere to earth I bid adieu. 

XX. 

Once to have thy words of kindness 
Like some wine of ages old, 

Heart rejoicing, life renewing, 
Poured on my despondent soul. 



100 RHYMES OF A RADICAL. 

XXI. 

Me as son and thou as mother ! 

Then it were unequaled joy 
Tended by thy ministrations, 

Maid, to lay me down and die. 

XXII. 

Blest be God, each glowing sunset 
Swings me nearer, nearer than 

E'er before the coming kingdom 
And the brotherhood of man. 

XXIII. 

Mother Time O bear more quickly 
All the infant days unborn, 

Shorten thou the space between us 
And the dawning of this morn. 

XXIV. 

Then will simple plenty crown us 
And the rich will not oppress, 

Then the poor will cease their wailing 
For their wrongs will have redress. 

XXV. 

Then thank God ! no ragged army 
For a scanty crust will mourn, 

While a nation lolls in plenty 
And its bins are full of corn. 



RHYMES OF A RADICAL. 101 

XXVI. 

Then the youth whose heart is hungry 
For the scholar's place and prize — 

Now the fountain sweet of learning 
Lo, a lack of wealth denies — 

XXVII. 

Will not groan upon his pillow 
Nor the fortunate will curse, 

Weeping that his sire begat him, 
That his mother gave him birth. 

XXVIII. 

Then the maids will cease to harlot, 
Wedding only those they love, 

And the state will stand, for virtue 
Goes with marriage hand in glove. 

XXIX. 

Then the merchant will not hate us 
Though we trade with other men, 

Then O joy ! the haughty sneering 
Of a wealthy spawn will end. 

XXX. 

Then will die a coward spirit 
And the public heart will cure, 

Then the rich will cease to flourish 
And the land will know no poor. 



102 RHYMES OF A RADICAL. 

XXXI. 

thou maiden with the white arms 
On a mercy mission sent, 

Coming with the breath of angels, 
Lightnings wing thy steep descent. 

XXXII. 

God, my Father, hear m}^ pleadings ! 

List thou to mine humble cry I 
Grant my soul this full fruition 

Lord Jehovah ere I die. 

XXXIII. 

Swift she comes with lightnings winged. 
Swift a mighty nation acts, 

1 with shoutings of the spirit 
La}^ mv fancy down for facts. 




RHYMES OF A RADICAT.. 103 



EPISTLE TO J. C. McCLOSKEY. 

(On His Nomination.) 

WELL, Johnnie, friend, I 'm pleased 
to know 
You have the nomination ; 
In spite to congress you shall go 

Of Journal and creation. 
The devil may stir up a fuss 

And make things smell of sulphur. 
But still the fact remains to us 
In you they have no " duffer." 

Sir, did the man who wields the pen, 

And guides that doughty paper. 
Know you as I he 'd turn, I ken, 

And huzza loud and caper. 
Well, well, I must not write too long 

As time is on me pressing. 
And my poor muse has split her song 

This note to you addressing. 

But when in congress* you shall poise 
'Mong legal asses braying, 

And sleek fat chaplain making noise 
With make-believe of praying, 

* state Legislature, 



104 RHYMES OF A RADICAL. 

Stay by your first love-common clods, 
And teach them 'twixt their revels 

The rich are simply men, not gods. 
And poor men are not devils. 



FRAGMENT OF AN EPISTLE TO . 

(On a Complaint.) 

THE olive tree may deaden 
And hush its sweet perfume, 
But flowers where hearts are wedden 
Will never cease to bloom. 

Hearts atwain are fragments 
From common center swung. 

Love, a synthesis, unites 
The two again in one. 



RHYMES OF A RADICAL. 105 



TO MY SISTER LENORE. 

O SISTER, listen to my words, 
Listen well where e'er thou be, 
Whether resting on the mountain. 

Whether sailing o'er the sea. 
I will breathe them to the winds 

Who will safe my message bear, 
They will bear it through the distance 
And will whisper in your ear. 

O, my sister dear, I love thee. 

Love thee truly, love thee still. 
Love thee with a firm foundation. 

Love thee as a brother will. 
Thou hast left usj left us, left us. 

Far in other lands to roam. 
And we miss thee, sadly miss thee. 

Sister dear from hearth and home. 

O my sister we do miss thee. 

Miss thy bright, th}- fair sweet face. 
Silent is the old piano. 

Vacant is thy table place. 
Silent is the dear old roof-tree. 

Vanished is thy face so bright. 
And the hearts o'erflow with sadness 

In our dear old home to-night. 



106 RHYMES OF A RADICAL. 

Empty is thy slumber chamber 

And the blinds are closely drawn, 
Steal no more in through the window 

Rosy streaks of coming dawn. 
Echo not thy gentle footfalls, 

No fresh flowers are in the urn, 
And we wonder sadly, sister, 

If thou ever wilt return. 

Hushed and low our conversation 

Now except a smothered sigh. 
But with mention of thee, sister. 

Springs a tear to every e3^e. 
And in voice husk with emotion 

As our hearts o'erflow with pain, 
We do wonder, O I my sister, 

If thou wilt return again. 

And our mother sits beside us 

With her hair besprinkled white, 
List'ning to her saddened heart throbs 

And the sobbing winds of night. 
Thinking of her absent daughter 

Wandering far she knows not where, 
Sad her heart throbs, sadly, sadly. 

On her cheek there glists a tear. 



RHYMES OF A RADICAL. 107 \ 



And her hands press 'gainst her forehead | 

And her breasts tumultuous rise, \ 

As she pra3^s unto " our Father " \ 

With the tear-dim in her eyes. , 

Prays unto the Lord Jehovah, ♦: 

Silent prays but not alone, 

*' Sad we miss her, sadly misg her, > 

O direct her footsteps home." \ 

And unheeded falls her knitting, 

Listless locked her fingers are, ■ 

As she flits in flights of fancy i 

Where 3^ou roam in lands afar. i 

And her eyes assume the dreamy i 

As with thoughts of thee we pore, j 
Sad we miss thee, sadly miss thee, 

Lost but unforgot Lenore. 

i 

And our father old and bended | 

Utters not his silent grief ; 

But upon his features written \ 

Sorrow's mark in bold relief. 

Slower now his aged footsteps, : 

Dimmer now his eyes once bright, : 

Leans he well toward the valley ■ 

Hov'ring 'twixt the day and night. j 



108 RHYMES OF A RADICAL. 

And thy brothers sad and thoughtful, 

Thinking deep and thinking long, 
Framing faces 'mong the embers 

As their fancy moves along ; 
Framing, sister, likeness of thee 

In the cam'ra of the mind, 
As they Ijst to shrieks and wailings 

Of the bleak December wind. 

Thus we sit before the hearthstone 

With the ghosts of former years 
Flitting fast before our visions, 

Bringing back the past with tears 
Bringing back the brightest visions. 

Visions we shall know no more. 
Sad we miss thee, sadly miss thee, 

Lost but unforgot Lenore. 

Sit we all in meditation 

With the embers glowing red, 
Thinking of the past and present 

Ere retiring unto bed. 
Sad without the wind is wailing. 

Not as sad as hearts within. 
We do miss thee, O ! Lenora, 

Distant far from kith or kin. 



RHYMES OF A RADICAL. 109 

And at last the silence broken 

By our mother old and dear, 
As aside is laid the knitting 

And away is brushed a tear, 
" Grieve thee not my dearest children, 

Doubts dismiss and gloomy fear, 
God hath spoke unto his children 

' I am with thee ev'ry where.' " 

God is Love and Truth and Justice, 

God is Life and Way and Light, 
Let us pray to him in union, 

Keep her feet in paths of right. 
God is Love and Truth and Justice, 

Let us pray to him alone, 
Sad we miss her, miss Lenora, 

O, direct her footsteps home. 

These verses were written one bleak December mid- 
night in my seventeenth year, and are here inserted 
because their family signification makes them very 
dear to me, and I wish to preserve them. 




110 RHYMES OF A RADICAL. 

SAILOR BOY JACK. 

Air— Original. 

I HAVE waited for thee, dear Jack, 
I have listened for your step, 
I have prayed for your protection, 

And in secret oft I 've wept. 
When the mad winds sweep the havens. 

And the storm clouds mantle all, 
I stand alone on the rock clift' 
And out o'er the wild waves call : 

CHORUS. 

Sailor boy Jack, O back to me come, 
Warm hearts are waiting to welcome you home ; 
Sailor boy Jack, out on the wild sea, 
Jennie is watching and waiting for thee. 

Summer evens fair and lovely 

Have I stood upon the cliff. 
And on evens dark with tempest, 

Watching for my dear Jack's ship. 
It will come one day or other 

If above the waves it be. 
Come bearing an untold treasure, 

My sailor boy Jack to me. 



RHYMES OF A RADICAL. lH 



HYMN OF REJOICING. 

CHRIST maketh no distinctions, 
There is neither Jew nor Greek ; 
The way of life is open 

Unto all of them that seek. 
His love is like an ocean, 

Fathomless, uncircumscribed ; 
For not for one or many, 

But for all the world he died. 

Earth's armies could not conquer, 

And earth's jewels could not buy 
This grace and life eternal 

Which are given from on high. 
Lost, alien, undeserving, 

And ungrateful. Lord, were we, 
But the sun of life is risen 

And thy righteousness we see. 

Then soul bow down and worship, 

Then heart lift up and sing. 
Dost hear the holy promise? 

''Unto thee rich gifts I'll bring.' 
O symphonies of heaven, 

O ye angels' tongues and men's, 
Louder peal the praise of Him 

Who full, free, salvation sends. 



112 RHYMES OF A RADICAL. 



TO "OUR NOBILITY." 

ALAS ! ye think the poor were made, 
Sirs, but to serve your int'rest, 
The men as lackeys God intends 
And maids to play the mistress. 

You think with coach and blooded bays. 

And castles tall and stately, 
To make us feel your far remove 

That 's so apparent lately. 

The mean display you make of wealth 

That gotten was unjustly. 
But makes us more and more despise 

And less and less to trust ye. 




T 



RHYMES OF A RADICAL. 113 



PAULUS' VISION. 

i 

WAS on a midnight long ago, 
When earth was shrouded o'er with 
snow, 
That young Paulus sat adreaming, 
Half awake and half asleeping. 
With the ruddy firelight streaming 
Round about him in his dreaming. 

And the firelight's reddening glare 
Transformed objects round him there 
Until the objects in his room 
Grinned like spectres from the tomb ; 
The dreamer's half observant eye 
These saw and yet did not descry. 

What he saw with eye asleeping 

With the brightest was in keeping. 

But his other wakened eye 

Saw blossoms both and dreams must die ; 

Yet wild his fancy painted on 

For future joys, those past and gone. 

Thus strange, unearthly, mixed the dream 
With life's true shade and fancy's beam ; 
Hideous things would change to fair. 
As snaky coils to braids of hair. 



114 RHYMES OF A RADICAL. 

And smiling maids of seraph shape 
A Gorgon's form in instant take. 

But as the silent night stole on 
And the bleak wind unrolled along, 
His dream was changed and mental sight 
Saw pictured in the dying light, 
Upon the cold and whitened wall 
Where dusky shadows rise and fall, 
A slender hand of wondrous mold 
And fettered by a band of gold. 

His wakeful eye observant, too. 
That fair hand saw, its owner knew ; 
As he beheld the golden band 
Slipped slowly from the wearer's hand, 
The vision faded from the wall. 
The ring was broken ere its fall. 




RHYMES OF A RADICAL. 115 



EPISTLE TO AN EARLY PRECEPTRESS. 

THIS morn I met thee, lady, who of yore 
With gentle kindness taught my feeble 
mind 
In early youth o'er learned books to pore, 

And hold in understanding tasks assigned. 
""Tis little that I know of wisdom's ways, 
'T is little that I have of scholar-craft. 
But still for thee I fill my meed of praise 
And then lament it does not justice half. 

Erst did my mind in youthful chaos sit, 

A thing of life but life without a form. 
Night, dearth and barrenness environed it, — 

An unlit spark of the Eternal born ; 
Nor torpid it, but struggling as a flow'r 

That hidden is in the dank womb of earth. 
Out of itself to spring, to shine and show'r — 

A thing of beauty and a thing of worth. 

When thus my mind, a formless world and 

void, 

And darkness brooded on its voiceless deep. 

Thou touched with plastic hand and round 

deployed 

To give it form and darkness off to sweep. 



116 RHYMES OF A RADICAL. 

'T was thou gav'st contour unto infant me,. 

And me is mind, is ego, I, eternal self; 
If aught of beauty, fragrance in me be 

I own it all, well earned, unto thyself. 

And I learned a lesson, lady, from thee 

That never was nor will be writ in books. 
Its only volume is Humanity, 

Its only page the gen'rous act and look. 
When oft my quenchless spirit, half untamed,. 

Rebellion wild, disastrous, for thee worked^ 
From high abuse and blows ye wise refrained,. 

And all ^^e did by unfeig^ned love was 
marked. 

As doth the sculptor to the marble bust 

The steely edge touch O, so carefully, 
In that he knows to this compacted dust 

Each touch will give lasting permanency. 
So you your solemn situation felt, 

And moulded with a skill 'bove hireling art 
The pliant mind, and gave eternal shape 

For life's drear toil, and for its higher part. 

If round my humble hearth should ever 
spring 

Young candidates for heaven or for hell, 
May such as her whose gracious worth I sing. 

And who in early 3'outh my lot befell, 



RHYMES OF A RADICAL. 117 

Ee theirs to cast in the eternal mold, 
And all I have within that can rejoice 

Will lift in raptured sonnet of the soul 
Thanksgiving hymn to Him in Paradise. 



MY DEFINITION. 



ASK: What is a poet? 
And the Muses answer, 
A man beloved of us, 
A weird music master. 
An unknown quantity 
Of faith, salacity. 
Whose soul 's enswathed in heav'n. 
Whose flesh is dipt in hell, 
Whose heart is sympathy, 
And life timidity, 
Whose bosom's yearning love 
No mortal words can tell. 
Ask: What is a poet? 
And thus th' Muses answer : 
Sensation's miracle, 
A weird music master. 



118 RHYMES OF A RADICAL. 



THE BATTLE OF MOBILE. 

THE world has heard how Farragut 
In August, Sixty-four, 
Lashed himself to his ship's main-yard 
As 'round Mobile she bore. 

The foeman's guns breathedflame and death. 

The shot flew thick and fast, 
But high above the battle smoke 

Was he strapped to the mast. 

It was, it was, a noble deed 

Done by a noble lord. 
But a nobler one was there performed 

Hist'ry does not record. 

The Rebel ram the ^' Tennessee" 

Behind Fort Morgan lay. 
And bold dashed out the Yanks to whip 

And sink down in the bay. 

But sheets of fire and leaden hail 

Compelled her to turn back. 
With the monitor '*Tecumseh" 

Hard pressing in her wake. 



RHYMES OF A RADICAL. 119 

The turrets flamed with cannon fire 

Like the red mouth of hell, 
And solid shot of fifteen inch 

Around the fleer fell. 

A petard floated on the wave, 

The sailors saw it not, 
And little dreamed that death was near 

Until they felt the shock. 

Cap. Craven in the pilot house, 

When the explosion came, 
Half through the small door op'ning out 

In hasty terror sprang. 

The pilot grasped him by the leg ; 

" Great God ! me first," he said, 
" I have a wife and children five 

Who look to me for bread." 

Then thus the captain : " Go on, sir," 

And way did quickly give ; 
A godlike act, and there he died 

That other ones might live. 

Down sank the ship like a great stone. 

And of the six-score men, 
Who manned it at the break of day. 

There lived at night but ten. 



120 RHYMES OF A RADICAL. 

The world has heard how Farragut 

In August, Sixty-four, 
Lashed himself to his ship's main-yard 

As 'round Mobile she bore. 

And on our country's honor rolls 

The name of Farragut, 
The sun-crowned man of war times old, 

Is high and justly put. 

His name is down on Hist'ry's scroll. 

And there it ought to be, 
A champion of the poor, oppressed, 

And friend of liberty. 

Cap. Craven has no earthly fame, 
No praise his name is giv'n. 

But it is written high upon 
The honor rolls of heav'n. 



It seems proper to remark that these verses are a bare recital 
■of facts. Imagination plays no part whatever except in the sup- 
position that the pilot's wife was still living at the time of the ca- 
tastrophe. Cap. Craven is real, and his deed was real. 




RHYMES OF A RADICAL. 121 



ODE TO THE DEAD. 

REST thou O, my well beloved, 
In thy spirit dwelling place, 
Thou art safe in deep oblivion, 

Locked thy form in death's embrace. 
Thou art free from tribulation, 

Thou art free from slight and sneer, 
From the loveless and the godless 
That one must encounter here. 

It is w^ell thy atoms sleepeth 

In the silence of the tomb. 
In the mists of non-existence. 

In the awful sphere of gloom. 
Friendship's coterie is broken, 

And the hearts that trusted were 
Turn away in blight and wither. 

Like the Fall leaf twist and sear. 

Friends wdth hearts as hard as granite. 

Little hearts if hearts at all. 
Mean and narrow, cold and selfish, 

Rejoicing if another fall. 
Tongues as long as Jacob's ladder. 

Voices loud in slander's song. 
Ready, Ham-like, to preach frailties, 

Ham-like ready for a wrong. 



122 RHYMES OF A RADICAL. 

Passing judgment on their betters, 

Mouthing things devoid of truth , 
By superior weight, not wisdom, 

Crushing out aspiring youth. 
Is there justice in their judgments? 

Is there truth, sweet and benign? 
Ask the analyzing chemist 

If there's water in pure wine? 

Now methinks that I can see them 

Seething in the central hell. 
See their hearts repierced by serpents,. 

Hear their supplicating yell. 
And 't will be as sure as heaven 

They shall burn in hellish fry. 
If their souls ain't microscopic 

To God's all discerning eye. 

But my brothers and my sisters 

Peaceful rest in realms above, 
Happy is thy strange existence 

'Mong the harmonies of love. 
Hear thine ears but sweetest music. 

Never doth thy bright eyes weep. 
In the palace high, eternal, 

Rest dear shades in joy and peace. 



RHYMES OF A RADICAL. 1 2S 



ANNIE PICKENS. 



RING the bells of all the city, 
For the Gov'nor's eldest daughter,. 
Fair as snow-white calla lilly 
Or a willow by the water, 
Is to wed." 

Thus a horseman called as he rode along, 
While the proud sun set and the west grew 
dim, 

As the shadows fell, and a mixed throng 
Poured into the streets, of women and men. 

II. 

"To-night, to-night, by the hour of eight, 
At the Gov'nor's house will two hearts mate,. 
Annie his eldest will be the bride. 
And gallant Rochelle the groom by her 
side." 

So the herald called as he onward rode. 
And the South's sweet maids waved their 
kerchiefs white. 
As a cheer from the lips of their broth'rs 
flowed 
That shook like a leaf the morning of night. 



124 RHYMES OF A RADICAL. 



DUAN SECOND. 



TOLL the bells of all the city, 
For the Gov'nor's eldest daughter, 
Fair as snow-white calla lily 
Or a willow b}^ the water — 
She is dead.'' 

Thus a horseman called as he rode along 
Through the .city streets in the gaslight 
flare. 

And the pale stars wept on the pushing throng 
That on the cold pavements each other jar. 

II. 

** To-night, to-night, at the hour of eight. 
In the Gov'nor's house did two hearts mate, 
Rochelle took Annie* his wife to be. 
But now, O Heavens ! no bride has he." 



*Annie was the eldest daughter of Gov. Pickens, of South Car- 
olina, and was wedded to Lieut. Rochelle, of the Confederate 
Army, April 22, 1863. As the marriage ceremony was being pro- 
nounced a Union shell tore through the walls and exploded in the 
room. The bride fell, mortally wounded in the temple, was placed 
on a sofa and, at the earnest solicitation of Rochelle, the ceremony 
proceeded. The poor girl had only strength to murmur assent to 
the marriage contract, and, smiling happily, expired in her hus- 
band's arms. 



RHYMES OF A RADICAL. 



125 



So the herald called as he sadly rode 

With a pain struck heart in the failing light ; 
From the South's sweet maids and their 
brothers flowed 
A moan that mixed with the wail of the 
night. 




126 RHYMES OF A RADICAL. 



ODE TO DEPARTED SUMMER. 

O THOU art gone, the roses fall, 
And hushed the robin's strain, 
The dreary clouds droop as a pall, 

For Winter 's come again. 
No more within the shady wood 

All through the day I '11 lie 
And listen to the happy brood 
That warble as they fly. 

The lazy brook is frozen o'er, 

The stream that turns the mill, 
N>) more we hear their waters pour, 

The cataract is still. 
The rapid river runs its race 

Beneath the ice and out ; 
The angler's laugh has given place 

To skater's song and shout. 

The forest trees stand bare and brown 

That Summer clothed so fair ; 
There leaves lie damp upon the ground 

In hillocks here and there. 
A mystic change has taken place. 

Their sides together fold, 
In arabesque they strew the chase 

And heap upon the wold. 



RHYMES OF A RADICAL. 127 

The North his banners wide unfurl ; 

Caecias and Argestes 
Charge on the wood, the leaves upwhirl 

Among the knotted trees. 
All gold and brown, and olive, too, 

They sweep across the moat, 
In varied forms and varied hue 

Upon the breeze they float. 

The flowers, ephemeral and gay, 

Have hied them back to earth. 
Safe hidden in her womb of clay 

They wait " the second birth." 
When April's silver shine and shower 

Shall crack the crust above. 
Upright they '11 stand in modest power 

And ask us for our love. 

The fields are brown, the stubble more. 

The scythe is hung to rest ; 
The rodent squirrel 's laid by his store 

And crawled into his nest. 
The life-sustaining store is in 

For farmer and his beast, 
And for the threat'nings of the wind 

He cares not in the least. 



128 RHYMES OF A RADICAL. 

He sits beside his cheerful hearth^ 

His wife knits by his side ; 
The children make a merry mirth, 

And smoothl}^ flows the tide. 
There 're hickory and hazel nuts 

For bairnie and for wife ; 
The " men folks " have their cider cup. 

Tobacco and their pipes. 

The village seems a thing of death, 

No sound is in the air ; 
A body 't is without the breath, 

Its narrow streets are bare. 
Excepting when in winter plaid 

Appears some mittened girl ; 
Who 's eyed askance by muffled lad 

Or dowdy village churl. 

I 'm sitting here half sad, alone, 

I 'm dreaming of the past. 
While awful 'round my casements moan 

The wild Borean blast. 
Bright dreams of summer come and go^ 

Of meadow, stream and hill, 
Whicli now lie deep beneath the snow,. 

And sleep ice-bound and still. 



RHYMES OF A RADICAL. 129 



THE NEW PASTOR. 

OLD Deacon Jones and Elder Smith 
Were great and godly men, 
They " tended church" twice ev'ry week 

And went to bed at ten. 
And all the people round about 

In speaking of these two 
Said, " men like brethren Jones and Smith 
You'll find but very few." 

Unbounded confidence in them 

They had, mix'd with much pride, 
What e'er they said the people all 

Upon it firm relied. 
The town had been for weeks agog. 

And ev^ry body said 
The little flock, of course, must have 

A parson at its head. 

The one they had, a Brother Frills, 

Had died some months before. 
So they engaged another man 

Chock full of Bible lore. 
He came upon a Sunday eve, 

'T was crispy, cool and clear. 
And half the village went in flocks 

The parson's first to hear. 
9 



130 RHYMES OF A RADICAL. 

Old Brother Smith sat on one side, 

Jones sat on the other, 
They gazed upon their minister 

And then on one anoth'r. 
At last the preacher took his text 

And spoke quite earnestly 
Of life and death, the second birth 

And God's economy. 

Next day upon the shady street 

These village worthies met, 
And as their hands in friendship meet 

Their eyes in questions met. 
^' Well," quoth the Deacon, " Brother Smith, 

Your judgment 's ever good, 
Now tell me if on solid base 

Last night our parson stood? " 

Then Elder Smith hung down his head, 

A blush his face suffused, 
*' I can not lie," he said aside, 

" To truth I 'm better used. 
It is with shame I speak of it 

And conscience pricks me deep, 
For all the while our brother spoke 

I, sir, was sound asleep." 



RHYMES OF A RADICAL. 131 

^' But now, good friend, I 'd like to know 
(Don't beat the bush around) 
What your opinion is of him, 
And was his logic sound?" 
^' Well, Brother Smith, you 've been so frank 
My secret I '11 not keep. 
But tell you all as you have me : 
I, too, was sound asleep." 




132 RHYMES OF A RADICAL. 

YOUNG MOTHER'S SONG. 

Air— Original. 

OVER my soul a light 's breaking 
Far sweeter than all the rest, 
'T is love for the new born baby 
Cradled upon my proud breast. 

CHORUS. 

Gather white lillies and jasmine, 
Weave royal robes for my babe. 

King of my heart have I crowned him 
With roses that never will fade. 

Many the blisses of wifehood. 
Most holy estate and blest. 

But love for one's own pure baby 
Is sweeter than all the rest. 

Blest among women are mothers. 
But blest among them and the rest 

Is she who with tears and thanksgiv'ng 
Clasps her first babe to her breast. 

Others may seek for hid treasure. 

Only one joy do I seek. 
The touch of m}^ dimpled darling 

And its sweet breath on my cheek. 



RHYMES OF A RADICAL. 133 

THIS AGE IS SCIENTIFIC. 

ODEAR ! such times as we live in ! 
In knowledge how prolific ! 
The whole world through, e'en shepherd 
crew 
Has grown so " scientific." 

I 've stood it when the wise have said 

That early in gestation, 
Through gills like fish an infant gets 

Its only inhalation. 

That grandpa was a moneron, 

The germ of all the races, 
And reproduced his simple kind 

By pinching self in pieces.* 

He first felt with antennas 'round, 
So runs the wondrous story. 

Then on his hands and feet he went 
In caudal grace and glory. 



* Moneron : a name proposed by Haeckel for a certain minute 
marine organism. To the Jena professor this simple cell of albu- 
men spontaneously generated is the initial or primordial life from 
which, according to the laws of ontogenesis— " selection," "sur- 
vival," " environment," etc., have been evolved all forms of life, 
including man. The moneron reproduces itself by bisection, or 
pinching itself in two. 



134 RHYMES OF A RADICAL. 

Dame Nature tried her youthful hand 
Upon the sea's crustacean, 

And of a lobster made a man 
By " natural selection." 

Zephyrus did on Flora breathe 
(Zephyrus was no scullion), 

And of a plant a maiden made 
(Perhaps it was a mullien). 

I 've stood all this, and twice as much. 

With patience beatific ; 
For sure I knew, and so do you. 

This age is " scientific." 

They boil the water that we drink,. 

The milk that makes the butter. 
And soon they '11 put a heater in 

The Jersey heifer's udder. 

But now some " scientific " man 
Says kissing 's instrumental 

In spreading the bacilli 'round, 
And'hence it 's detrimental. 

Of course they '11 lay embargoes on 

This dangerous delight. 
And shut the gates of commerce down 

On the bacilli tight. 



RHYMES OF A RADICAL. 135 

Just think of it ! ye gods and men I 
Ye maidens, youths and ladies I 

Ye dare not kiss ! not even can 
The preachers kiss the babies. 

O for some isle a thousand mile 

Out in the broad Pacific, 
Where 1 might hie, nor hear the cry^ 

This age is " scientific." 




136 RHYMES OF A RADICAL. 

THE TALE OF POOR LINKIE. 

(IRREGULAE.) 
I. 

I'VE loved a hundred girls or more, 
Some broad and others narrow, 
But now my heart is set upon 
One bonnie Bertha Farrow. 

II. 

I 've never spoken to this maid, 
Indeed I 've never seen her ; 

Yet of the banged and belted throng 
I '11 swear there 's no one dearer. 

III. 

Just why this is, attentive friends, 

I own I can not tell ; 
Somehow a dream of Grecian bends 

Has wove me in a spell. 

IV. 

Upon her beauty ravishing 

At eve I musing dwell. 
And dream, when sick, upon her smile 

I look, and lo, am well. 



RHYMES OF A RADICAI.. 137 

V. 

Her breath is as the musk rose dew, 
Her cheeks are Hke the Hlly, 

Her voice is as a lover's song 
On summer nights and stilly. 

VI. 

Her eyes are full of unwaked song, 
Her hair 's a wreath of glory. 

And one "altogether lovely" 
Is the maiden of my story. 

VII. 

If in this breast burned in one flame 

All high poetic giving, 
I could not sing half of her worth 

In years of ceaseless striving. 

VIII. 

But O ! she says we 're unacquaint 

Because I 'm unpresented. 
And turns my friendship out of doors 

Alone and unlamented. 

IX. 

My heart, my heart, 't is full of grief, 

Myself I 'm most beside ; 
I dinna ken where there 's relief 

Except in suicide. 



138 RHYMES OF A RADICAL. 



Some fellow has my angel one 

By Cupid I declare, 
And I am left to rant in rh3^me 

And tear my scanty hair. 

XI. 

I '11 get a string that 's ten feet long, 
Made out of flimsy paper, 

Then to the garden I will go 
And cut the strangest caper ; 

XII. 

I '11 tie one end around my neck, 

The other to a briar. 
Then from a box two inches high 

Will spring the rhyming Dyer. 

XIII. 

The. cocks shall crow a requiem, 

The hens will help along 
The doleful strain, and weep to think 

The ranting Willie gone. 

XIV. 

Upon the stone that marks m}^ bones 
For those who come to sorrow, 

Be this inscribed : Poor Linkie died 
For love of Bertha Farrow. 



RHYMES OF A RADICAL, 139 



OUR ANCIENT TOWN. 



OUR ancient town of small renown 
Doth backward swiftly travel ; 
However, I have done my best 
To save it from the devil. 

It's withered up and tasteless, 
*'A root out of dry ground," 
In all the world it's matchless, 
None like it can be found. 

II. 

Our ancient town to turn around 

It is no use to tr}^ 
The thing 's determined not to live 

And likewise not to die. 

III. 

Our ancient town is slipping down 

Toward the pit infernal, 
But see ! it spits upon its hands 
And — sleeps its sleep eternal. 
It 's withered up and tasteless, 
"A root out of dry ground," 
In all the world it 's matchless. 
None like it can be found. 



140 RHYMES OF A RADICAL. 

LINES ON WOMAN. 

(IRREGULAK.) 
I. 

O WOMAN, silver voiced and sweet, 
With form of elfish grace, 
Thou holdest hell within thy heart 
And heaven in thy face. 

II. 

Thou art the lute of symphony, 
And discord's scale chromatic, 

A naked death; and, half unveiled. 
Beatitude ecstatic. 

III. 
The mistress of felicity. 

Gate-keeper of dissension, 
Peace-maker, too, and yet a gale 

Strife stirring and contention. 

IV. 

All things in ^^ou antithesize. 

All things in you seem blending. 

One day to God thou lifteth up, 
The next to hell you 're sending. 

And thy compassion, O how great ! 
But length of tongue is greater ; 



RHYMES OF A RADICAL. 141 

Thy toilet secrets, paste and paint, 
You ever hold inviolate ; 
But make the neighbors all acquaint 
With thine own husband's schemes of 
State- 
Thus good and bad belabor. 




142 RHYMES OF A RADICAL, 



A NIGHT IN JUNE. 



A BALMY night in the month of June 
And the river by us singing, 
The rogue wind whistling his ancient tune, 
Bearing and breathing a sweet perfume. 
And the white stars o'er us clinging. 

A pheasant drums in a dim retreat 

Till the lonely woods ringing, 
Beating the time for the flying feet 
Of fays who dance to the faint song sweet 

The night birds are a-singing. 

An unseen baton the choir directs. 

Periods perfectly rounding. 
The grigs and river and night winds fix 
Their ancient songs in a wondrous mix. 

On the rapt ear strangely sounding. 

A touch of hands and of lips that kiss, 

A warm embrace and tli' thing is done ; 
Another touch of the hot, hot lips, 
A golden band on her finger slips. 

The troth is made, two hearts are one. 



RHYMES OF A RADICAL. 143 

THE STORY SAD OF ELD. 

(RELIGIO.) 

THERE is a story older than 
The story of the cross ; 
The tale began in Eden old 
And never has been lost. 
O, bow thine ears, Jehovah, down. 

And listen as I tell. 
With pain-struck heart and tearful eyes, 
The story sad of eld. 

Ten million times you 've heard, I know, 

And thrice ten million times ; 
In ev'ry tongue beneath the sun. 

And, too, in ev'ry clime. 
But in the coming ages, Lord, 

The penitent vv^ill tell. 
With pain-struck heart and tearful eyes. 

The story sad of eld. 

A tale of woe, of godless acts. 
Of misspent days and years ; 

Of cruel words, of sensual sin. 
And penitence and tears. 



144 RHYMES OF A RADICAL. 

O Lord, my God, I know thou "It hear 

The tale I have to tell. 
And my sins take as I relate 

The story sad of eld. 

The consequence of evil done, 

My Lord, I pray forgive ; 
And grant my soul its highest boon, 

Christ's righteousness to have. 
Oh, that thy home, my God, be mine ! 

For there no children tell. 
With pain-struck heart and tearful eyes 

The story sad of eld. 




RHYMES OF A RADICAL. 145 

TO AN OFFENDED SCHOOL-MATE. 

(An Apology.) 

THE words once spoken spoken are ; 
The past is past, so let it sleep ; 
The present has its guiding star, 
And future joys will surely greet 
The hopeful heart. 

It is our common lot to err — 

To do the wrong, neglect the right — 

And thoughtless words will often blur 
The future luster of a life 
With woful sting. 

In heats of passion words are spoke, 
The bitter, burning words of hate ; 

But when that narrow stream is broke, 
Repentance comes, but oft too late 
To right the wrong. 

A friend's true worth few of us know. 

As side by side we yoke our way ; 
The hand 's not prized till falls the blow 
That severs it eternally, 

Then grief is vain. 
10 



146 RHYMES OF A RADICAL. 

While life shall last and conscience burn, 
The sins we do our peace will fret. 

And hence to thee, O maid, I turn, 
And pray thee that thou wilt forget 
Those cruel words. 



A DIALOGUE. 



BURNS 



BAR'L ope thy spigot wide and quench 
A weary trav'ler's burning thirst, 
Thy hollow 's full of " auld Scotch drink ; " 

So full thy staves maun well nigh burst. 
O, listen to the humble prayer 

An honest bardie makes to you ; 
But let him bow before thy shrine, 
And unto thine his own lips glue. 

bar'l : 

Most honored bard, by Muses loved, 

Thy supplicating voice I hear. 
And to refuse thy meek request 

Will cost the contrite hour of tear. 
If sympathy's dictates I heed. 

And grant the burden of your cry, 
Full well I know you 'd never cease 

Till you had drank me light and dry. 



RHYMES OF A RADICAL. 147 



SERVANT OF GOD, ALL HAIL! 

SERVANT of God, all hail I 
May victory attend 
Your humble fight for the way that is right, 
Like an ocean poured from an awful height, 
And grace your soul defend. 
And grace your soul defend. 

Fling the banner of God 

Wide in the blazing sun, 
Till the stains that were made by cross and 

the grave 
Are seen by the nations he came to save. 

And the world's heart is wrung. 

And the new song is sung. 

Preach till the setting sun 

To others eastward rise. 
And westward swift flashing from spire to 

spire 
Circles the earth with a ribbon of fire 

Holy to angel eyes, 

Holy to angel eyes. 

Preach the kingship of Christ 
With unction from on high. 



148 RHYMES OF A RADICAL. 

Till matin devotions follow the sun 
And back to the pra}'!* of the even come, 
Kissing each other good-night, 
Kissing each other good-night. 

Thunder the wrath of God 

On "folly as it flies," 
Preach of the place where the agonized tear 
Shall fall till the soul of the weeper appear 

Stainless to heav'nly eyes, 

Precious to heav'nl}^ eyes. 

Preach the home of the soul 

Where pious pilgrims go, 
Where dwellers ne'er know the feeling of pain 
Nor onto the cheek e'er cometh a stain 

Made b}' the lachrymal flow. 

Made by the lachr^-mal flow. 

Servant of God, all hail ! 

May victory attend 
Your humble fight for the way that is right. 
Like an ocean poured from an awful height. 

And grace your soul defend. 

And grace your soul defend. 



RHYMES OF A RADICAL. 149 

MY MARIA. 

(Air— Original.) 

NOT for the freshness of her face, 
Nor the fullness of her purse, 
Did I wed my lost Maria, 

Wed for better or for worse. 
Sprightly was she when a maiden, 

And her lands were rich and broad, 
Still I wed not face nor fortune. 

But the soul of her I loved. 
Joined were we in holy union. 

Not in form nor all in name, 
But as Inspiration teaches, 

One in substance and the same. 

Chorus. 

My Maria, loved Maria, 

'Neath the green- wood tree. 
Sings the river on forever 

Requiems for thee. 
My Maria, loved Maria, 

Sainted shade in light. 
Thy death severed two fond hearts, love, 

Mine will them unite. 



150 RHYMES OF A RADICAL. 

Fifty years we walked in gladness, 

Living in each other's life, 
I was loved and honored husband, 

She was loved and honored wife ; 
Love like hers knows of no limit 

Bending to the human will, 
For besides her own she sought to 

Swing my burdens up life's hill. 
O my lost, my loved Maria, 

I am waiting for the day. 
When to thee from earth and anguish 

Swift shall speed my soul away. 



IT BUDS BUT BLOSSOMS NEVER. 



ONE-HALF of nature's numbers sweet, 
Unloved, unheard, fall at my feet; 
And to myself I do repeat, 
Over and o'er. 
Over and o'er. 
What cause hast thou, O heart, for grief. 
Than others more. 
Than others more. 



RHYMES OF A RADICAL. 151 

II. 

Within my soul there buds a flower ; 

'Twas planted in an early hour, 

And nourished by youth's shine and shower, 

So warm and sweet, 

So warm and sweet ; 
And from this soil no mortal power 

Can pluck its feet. 

Can pluck its feet. 
Though it buds it blossoms never ; 
Though it dies it lives forever ; 
Though it lives 't is dying ever 

Within my heart. 

Within my heart ; 
Though I could I would not sever 

It from my heart. 

It from my heart. 




162 RHYMES OF A RADICAL. 



A LITTLE BOY'S SOLILOQUY. 

1NOW am but a little boy ; 
To be a man I '11 grow, 
And out among (to think what joy !) 
The pretty maids I '11 go. 

I '11 have just lots and lots of fun 

Each night and every day ; 
I '11 labor, too ; it must be done ; 

There's work as well as play. 

Some day I '11 wed a neighbor girl 
That can make bread and pies ; 

Who 's fond of work, who wears a curl, 
And loves me well besides. 

We '11 build a house, and live in it ; 

And O what jolly fun 
Upon the portico to sit, 

Like pa, when work is done. 

I now am but a boy, I know ; 

Some day I '11 be a man ; 
And those who laugh I then will show 

That do these things I can. 



RHYMES OF A RADICAL. 153 



VALEDICTION. 

BROTHER, be not faint, despondent, 
Strong be thou and hope alway. 
Sink not down thy cares bemoaning 
Overburdened by the way. 

Does another move beside thee 
Burdened w^ith a load of care? 

Though thine own is twice the greater. 
Share it brother, brother share. 

All the grief we bear for others. 
All their burdens that we take, 

Toiling on life's dusty highway, 
Will our own the lighter make. 

Kindly speak to this and that one. 
Words of comfort and of cheer ; 

Words of courage, calm and trustful 
Fall like balm upon the ear. 

Nor but speak in words of kindness. 

Doing is of love the sum. 
And I tell thee truly, brother. 

Actions speak w^hen words are dumb. 



164 RHYMES OF A RADICAL. 

By an act, a good example, 
By the tribute of a smile, 

We may wake a latent goodness 
Flowing dormant all the while. 

We may dissipate a storm cloud, 
Generate a hope sublime, 

By a word of kind advisement 
Spoken in the nick of time. 

Brother, be not faint, despondent. 
Strong be thou and hope alway, 

Sink not down by cares bemoaning 
Overburdened by the way. 

Plate thy breast with trust in heaven, 
Let hope's banner be unfurled. 

Blazoned wath a promised mansion 
In that holy deathless world. 




018 597 134 



